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diff --git a/25294-8.txt b/25294-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bcdfe52 --- /dev/null +++ b/25294-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7038 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chats on Household Curios, by Fred W. Burgess + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chats on Household Curios + +Author: Fred W. Burgess + +Release Date: May 2, 2008 [EBook #25294] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHATS ON HOUSEHOLD CURIOS *** + + + + +Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + + +CHATS ON HOUSEHOLD CURIOS + +BOOKS FOR COLLECTORS + +_With Frontispieces and many Illustrations +Large Crown 8vo, cloth._ + +CHATS ON ENGLISH CHINA. + By Arthur Hayden. + +CHATS ON OLD FURNITURE + By Arthur Hayden. + +CHATS ON OLD PRINTS. + By Arthur Hayden. + +CHATS ON COSTUME. + By G. Woolliscroft Rhead. + +CHATS ON OLD LACE AND NEEDLEWORK. + By E. L. Lowes. + +CHATS ON ORIENTAL CHINA. + By J. F. Blacker. + +CHATS ON OLD MINIATURES. + By J. J. Foster, F.S.A. + +CHATS ON ENGLISH EARTHENWARE. + By Arthur Hayden. + +CHATS ON AUTOGRAPHS. + By A. M. Broadley. + +CHATS ON PEWTER. + By H. J. L. J. Massé, M.A. + +CHATS ON POSTAGE STAMPS. + By Fred. J. Melville. + +CHATS ON OLD JEWELLERY AND TRINKETS. + By MacIver Percival. + +CHATS ON COTTAGE AND FARMHOUSE FURNITURE. + By Arthur Hayden. + +CHATS ON OLD COINS. + By Fred. W. Burgess. + +CHATS ON OLD COPPER AND BRASS. + By Fred. W. Burgess. + +CHATS ON HOUSEHOLD CURIOS. + By Fred. W. Burgess. + + +_In Preparation._ + +CHATS ON BARGAINS. + By Charles E. Jerningham. + +CHATS ON JAPANESE PRINTS. + By Arthur Davison Ficke. + +CHATS ON OLD CLOCKS AND WATCHES. + By Arthur Hayden. + +CHATS ON OLD SILVER. + By Arthur Hayden. + +LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN. +NEW YORK: F. A. STOKES COMPANY. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--OLD FIREPLACE, SHOWING SUSSEX BACK, ANDIRONS, +AND TRIVET. + +Frontispiece.] + + * * * * * + + + + +CHATS ON +HOUSEHOLD CURIOS + +BY + +FRED. W. BURGESS + +AUTHOR OF "CHATS ON OLD COINS," "CHATS ON OLD +COPPER AND BRASS," ETC. + +WITH 94 ILLUSTRATIONS + +LONDON + +T. FISHER UNWIN +ADELPHI TERRACE + + +_First published in 1914_ + +(_All rights reserved_) + + + + +PREFACE + + +There is a peculiar charm about the relics found in an old home--a home +from which many generations of fledglings have flown. As each milestone +in family history is passed some once common object of use or ornament +is dropped by the way. Such interesting mementoes of past generations +accumulate, and in course of time the older ones become curios. + +It is to create greater interest in these old-world odds and ends--some +of trifling value to an outsider, others of great intrinsic worth--that +this book has been written. The love of possession is to some possessors +the chief delight; to others knowledge of the original purposes and uses +of the objects acquired affords still greater pleasure. My intention has +been rather to assist the latter class of collectors than to facilitate +the mere assemblage of additional stores of curiosities. It is truly +astonishing how rapidly the common uses of even household furnishings +and culinary utensils are forgotten when they are superseded by others +of more modern type. + +The modern art of to-day and the revival of the much older furniture of +the past have driven out the household gods of intermediate dates, and +it is in that period intervening between the two extremes that most of +the household curios reviewed in this work are found. Although many of +the finest examples of household curios are now in museums, private +collectors often possess exceptional specimens, and sometimes own the +most representative groups of those things upon which they have +specialized. + +The examples in this book have been drawn from various sources. As in +"Chats on Old Copper and Brass" (which may almost be regarded as a +companion work), the illustrations are taken from photographs of typical +museum curios and objects in private collections, or have been specially +sketched by my daughter, who has had access to many interesting +collections, to the owners of which I am indebted for the illustrations +I am able to make use of. + +My thanks are due to the Directors of the British Museum, who have +allowed their printers, the University Press, Oxford, to supply electros +of some exceptional objects now in the Museum; also to the Director of +the Victoria and Albert Museum, at South Kensington; and the Director +of the London Museum, now located at Stafford House. + +Dr. Hoyle, the Director of the National Museum of Wales, at Cardiff, has +most kindly had specially prepared for this work quite a number of +photographs of very uncommon household curios. The Curator of the Hull +Museum has loaned blocks, and photographs have been sent by Messrs. Egan +and Co., Ltd., of Cork; Mr. Wayte, of Edenbridge; and Mr. Phillips, of +the Manor House, Hitchin. To Mr. Evans, of Nailsea Court, Somerset, I am +indebted for the loan of his unrivalled collection of ancient +nutcrackers, some of which have been sketched for reproduction. I have +also made use of examples in the collections of private friends, and +illustrated some of my own household curios, many of them family relics. + +The story of domestic curios is made the more useful by these +illustrations, and also by references to well-known collections. There +is much to admire in the once common objects of the home, now curios, +and it is in the hope that some may be led to appreciate more the +antiques with which they are familiar that these pages have been penned. +If that is achieved my object will have been accomplished. + +FRED. W. BURGESS. + +LONDON, 1914. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE +PREFACE 7 + + +CHAPTER I + +THE LOVE OF THE ANTIQUE 19 + + No place like home--Curios in the making--The influence of + prevailing styles--A cultivated taste. + + +CHAPTER II + +THE INGLE SIDE 33 + + Fire-making appliances--Tinder boxes--The fireplace--Andirons and + fire-dogs--Sussex backs--Fireirons and fenders--Trivets and + stools--Bellows. + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LIGHTS OF FORMER DAYS 59 + + Rushlights and holders--Candles, moulds, and boxes--Snuffers, trays, + and extinguishers--Oil lamps--Lanterns. + + +CHAPTER IV + +TABLE APPOINTMENTS 77 + + Cutlery: Knives, forks, and spoons--Salt cellars--Cruet + stands--Punch and toddy--Porringers and cups--Trays and + waiters--The tea table--Cream jugs--Sugar tongs and + nippers--Caddies--Cupids--Nutcrackers--Turned woodware. + + +CHAPTER V + +THE KITCHEN 121 + + The kitchen grate--Boilers and kettles--Grills and + gridirons--Cooking utensils--Warming pans. + + +CHAPTER VI + +HOME ORNAMENTS 147 + + Mantelpiece ornaments--Vases--Derbyshire Spars--Jade or spleen + stone--Wood carvings--Old gilt. + + +CHAPTER VII + +GLASS AND ENAMELS 173 + + Waterford, Bristol, and Nailsea--Ornaments of glass--Enamels on + metal. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LEATHER AND HORN 185 + + Spanish leather--Cuir boulli work--Tapestry and upholstery--Leather + bottles and drinking vessels--Leather curios--Shoes--Horn work. + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE TOILET TABLE 199 + + The table and its secrets--Combs--Patch boxes--Enamelled + objects--Perfume boxes and holders--Dressing + cases--Scratchbacks--Toilet chatelaines--Locks of hair--Jewel + cabinets. + + +CHAPTER X + +THE OLD WORKBOX 223 + + Spinning wheels--Materials and work--Little + accessories--Cutlery--Quaint woodwork--The needlewoman--Old + samplers. + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LIBRARY 251 + + From cover to cover--Old scrap books--Almanacs--The writing table. + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SMOKER'S CABINET 269 + + Old pipes--Pipe racks--Tobacco boxes--Smokers' tongs and + stoppers--Snuff boxes and rasps. + + +CHAPTER XIII + +LOVE TOKENS AND LUCKY EMBLEMS 281 + + Amulets--Horse trappings--Emblems of luck--Love spoons--Glass + curios. + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE MARKING OF TIME 295 + + Clocks--Watches--Watch keys--Watch stands. + + +CHAPTER XV + +MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 309 + + Early examples--Whistles and pipes--Violins and harps. + + +CHAPTER XVI + +PLAY AND SPORT 319 + + Dolls--Toys--Old games--Outdoor amusements--Relics of sport. + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MISCELLANEOUS 337 + + Dower chests--Medicine chests--Old lacquer--The tool chest--Egyptian + curios--Ancient spectacles--Curious chinaware--Garden curios--The + mounting of curios--Obsolete household names. + + +INDEX 357 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +FIG. + +1. OLD FIREPLACE, SHOWING SUSSEX BACK, ANDIRONS, AND TRIVET _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + +2. ANDIRONS WITH RATCHETS 27 + +3. ORNAMENTED CRESSET DOGS 27 + +4. TELESCOPIC RUSH AND CANDLE HOLDER 27 + +5. RATCHET RUSH AND CANDLE HOLDER 27 + +6. ANCIENT ROMAN FIRE-DOG 37 + +7. SUSSEX GRATE BACK, DATED 1588 37 + +8. THREE SINGLE DOGS OR ANDIRONS 45 + +9. PAIR OF DATED SUSSEX ANDIRONS (1625) 45 + +10. PAIR OF SUSSEX ANDIRONS 45 + +11. SUSSEX BACK WITH ROYAL EMBLEMS 51 + +12. SUSSEX BACK WITH ARMS AND ROYAL INITIALS 51 + +13. FINE CARVED WALNUT WOOD BELLOWS 55 + +14. THREE RUSHLIGHT HOLDERS 63 + +15. THREE VARIETIES OF OLD OIL LAMPS 63 + +16. TWO WALNUT WOOD FLOOR-CANDLESTICKS 69 + +17. FINE PAIR OF ANCIENT SNUFFERS 73 + +18. HANDSOMELY DECORATED KNIFE CASE AND CONTENTS 81 + +19. KNIFE, FORK, AND SPOON 87 + +20. PAIR OF DECORATED SPOONS 93 + +21. TWO WOODEN CUPS 101 + +22. WOODEN FLAGON, WITH COPPER BANDS 101 + +23. A COCOANUT CUP (SILVER-MOUNTED) 101 + +24. A COCOANUT CUP (SILVER-MOUNTED) 101 + +25. COCOANUT FLAGON 101 + +26. EARLY ENGLISH BRONZE EWER 109 + +27. INSCRIBED SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY WOOD DRINKING CUP 115 + +28-30. EARLY CARVED WOOD NUTCRACKERS 115 + +31-34. MEDIÆVAL WOOD NUTCRACKERS 119 + +35-39. EARLY STEEL AND BRASS NUTCRACKERS 119 + +40. TWO ANTIQUE WARMING PANS 124 + +41. WELSH KITCHEN FIREPLACE 124 + +42. MECHANICAL ROASTING JACKS 127 + +43-46. GRIDIRONS SHOWING FOREIGN INFLUENCE IN DESIGN 131 + +47 AND 48. TWO WOODEN FOOD BOXES 135 + +49. A COLLECTION OF IRON FAT BOATS AND GREASE PANS 135 + +50. WOODEN COFFEE CRUSHERS AND PESTLES AND MORTAR 139 + +51. APPLE SCOOPS OF BONE 139 + +52. WOODEN PIGGINS AND PORRIDGE BOWL 143 + +53. WOODEN PLATTER, BOWL, AND SPOONS 143 + +54. BRASS CHIMNEY ORNAMENT (ONE OF A PAIR) 151 + +55. BLACK AND GOLD DERBYSHIRE MARBLE VASE 155 + +56. TEMPLE GUARDIAN, CARVED FROM THE GNARLED ROOT OF A TREE 159 + +57. CARVED PLAQUE STAND 163 + +58 AND 59. MINIATURE COPPER AND SILVER KETTLES 167 + +60. MINIATURE IVORY COFFEE BOILER 167 + +61. TWO OLD-GILT JEWELLED ORNAMENTS 167 + +62. THREE FINE OLD IVORIES 171 + +63. BATTERSEA ENAMELS 179 + +64. ANTIQUE DRESSING OR TOILET GLASS 202 + +65. THREE OLD SCRATCHBACKS 209 + +66. SILVER CHATELAINE TOILET INSTRUMENTS 209 + +67. ANOTHER CHATELAINE SET 209 + +68. FINE ORIENTAL LACQUERED BOX 217 + +69. SMALL LACQUER CABINET 217 + +70. A PAGODA-SHAPED CASKET 217 + +71. DECORATED JEWEL CASE 217 + +72. OLD SPINNING WHEEL 227 + +73. SPINNING WHEEL 233 + +74. OLD LACE BOBBINS 233 + +75. OLD PIN POPPETS AND ANCIENT PINS 237 + +76. THREE OLD WORKBOXES 243 + +77. OLD WORKBOX FITTINGS 247 + +78. ANCIENT CLOG ALMANAC 257 + +79. OLD COIN TESTER 265 + +80. MINIATURE SOUVENIR ALMANAC 265 + +81. ANCIENT WRITING SET 265 + +82. THREE CURIOUS PIPE-STOPPERS 275 + +83. BRASS TOBACCO BOX 275 + +84. COLLECTION OF HARNESS AMULETS AND TEAM BELLS 285 + +85. OLD WELSH LOVE SPOONS 291 + +86. FINE GOTHIC FRENCH CLOCK 299 + +87. SPECIMENS OF OLD WATCH KEYS 303 + +88. TWO ANTIQUE WATCH CASES 303 + +89. OLD SPINET 315 + +90. CURIOUS TYPES OF WHISTLES 323 + +91. QUAINT OLD TOY 323 + +92. A POWDER TESTER 335 + +93. A PRIMING FLASK 335 + +94. OLD POWDER FLASKS 343 + + + + +I + +THE LOVE OF THE ANTIQUE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE LOVE OF THE ANTIQUE + + No place like home--Curios in the making--The influence of + prevailing styles--A cultivated taste. + + +There is an inborn love of the antique in most men, although some are +fond of asserting that their interests are bound up in the modern, and +that they have no time to devote to the study of the antiquities of past +ages or the things that were fashionable in times long past. Yet most +people, when their secret longings are analysed, are found to have an +admiration for the old; if not a superstitious veneration, at any rate a +desire to perpetuate the memory of their ancestors and to keep in mind +the things with which they were familiar. The wealthy man of to-day, who +may have sprung from the people, secretly, if not openly, endeavours to +surround himself with household gods which tell of a longer past and a +closer relationship with the well-to-do than he can legitimately claim. +In the pursuit of such things many a man has found his hobby; and there +are few men who do not find recreation and delight in a hobby of some +kind. Such interests outside their regular occupations broaden their +outlook and widen their knowledge. Some hobbies tend to lead to +specialization, and the specialist is apt to become warped and narrowed; +not so, however, the collector of household curios. + + +No Place Like Home. + +It would be difficult to find greater delight than that which centres in +those things that concern the home and home life. The love of the old +homestead and the goods and chattels it contains is ingrained in the +breast of every Britisher; and although families become scattered and +some of their members find homes of their own beyond the seas, they find +the greatest delight in the objects with which they were familiar in +years gone by, and venerate the relics of former generations--the +household gods which have been handed on from father to son. + +It is not the intrinsic value of the household curio that is its chief +charm; it is rather the knowledge that its long association with those +who have claimed its ownership from the time when it was "new" has made +it truly a family relic. These thoughts, being so deeply rooted in the +minds of most men and women, foster the love of household curios and +intensify the interest shown in their possession. + +To all it is not given to own family relics; neither would they serve to +satiate the ambition of the true collector, although they might form the +nucleus of his collection. He seeks other treasures in the town and in +the country and wherever such things are offered for sale. + + +Curios in the Making. + +The domestic habits of the people of this and other civilized countries +have been the outcome of a slow process of upbuilding. There has been no +sudden change; in all grades and under every different social condition, +at every period, the improvement of the furnishings of the home has been +one of gradual and, for the most part, steady progress. + +There was a time when, beyond the bare furniture, tapestry hangings, +tools of the craftsmen, and weapons of the warrior, there were few +household goods of a portable nature. In mediæval England the oak chest +was sufficient to contain the valuables of a large household; and very +often beyond a cabinet or sideboard or corner cupboard there were few +receptacles where anything of value could be safeguarded. The dower +chest, in which the bride brought to her husband household linen and her +stock of clothing, and in the wooden compartment in one corner of the +chest her jewels and coin of the realm--if she possessed any--was then a +prominent piece of furniture. The oak chest, rendered formidable with +its massive lock and bolts, opened with a ponderous key, was the chosen +receptacle in after-years as a treasure chest, and regarded as the +safest place in which to keep valuable documents and other property. In +the Public Record Office may be seen the old iron box in which the +Domesday Book was kept for many centuries. The old City Companies have +their treasure chests still; and boxes studded over with iron nails and +fitted with large hasps and locks are pointed out in many old houses as +passports to family standing. + +The household curios which a collector seeks include objects of utility +and ornament. Many of them are associated with household work, and quite +a number of one-time kitchen and culinary utensils, as well as those +which were once cherished in the best parlour or withdrawing-room, are +found places among such curios. During the last few years domestic +architecture has passed through several stages of advancement. The stiff +and formal Georgian houses, the painful Victorian villas, and some of +the earlier attempts at architectural improvement have been swept away +to make room for modern replicas of still older styles which have been +revived or incorporated in the _nouvre_ art, which touches the home in +its architecture and internal decoration, as well as in its furnishings. +In modern dwellings the Elizabethan style has often been followed, +although modern conveniences have been incorporated. When furnishing +such houses with suitable replicas of the antique the householders of +the last quarter of a century have been unconsciously, perhaps, +fostering the love of household antiques and providing fitting homes for +their family curios. + + +The Day of the Curio Hunter. + +This is admittedly the day of curio hunting, and those who specialize on +household curios have exceptional opportunities of displaying them to +better advantage than those who cared for such things in the past. +Perhaps it is because there were so few opportunities of arranging and +displaying household antiques during the last three-quarters of the +nineteenth century that many objects now treasured have been preserved +so fresh and kept in such excellent condition. The housewives of the +past generation were undoubtedly conservative in their retention of old +household goods, and it is to their careful preservation that so many +objects of interest, although perhaps fully a century old, come to the +collector in such perfect condition. + +The patient labour expended by the amateur artist, the needleworker, and +the connoisseur of home art a generation or two ago has provided the +collector to-day with an exceptionally interesting class of curio, for +there is much to admire in amateur craftsmanship, and especially in the +handiwork of the needlewoman and the weaver and decorator of so many +beautiful textiles which have been preserved to us. Sentiment was strong +in the early nineteenth century, and among the love tokens of that day, +chiefly the work of amateurs, some very beautiful and unique curios were +produced. These, too, have come down to the collector of the twentieth +century, and help him to secure specimens representing every decade, so +that in a large collection, carefully selected, the slow and yet sure +progress made in the fine arts, and the improvement in the ornamental +surroundings in the home, is made clear. In each one of the different +groups into which household curios may be divided there are many +distinctive objects, all of which are in themselves interesting, but +when viewed in association with other things which have been used at +contemporary periods, or associated with the home life of persons +similarly situated, but dwelling in different localities, are doubly +interesting. + + +The Influence of Prevailing Styles. + +In determining the origin of curios, and defining the periods during +which they have been made, it is useful to have at least a little +knowledge of the influence or character of the prevailing styles in the +countries of origin. French art has exercised a great influence upon the +productions of other nations; it has also been moulded by the curios and +other articles of foreign origin then being sold in France. Regal and +political influence have left their mark upon almost every period of +French art, and have had much to do with the contemporary art of other +nations, for France was for centuries a guide in most of the fine arts, +and especially in those things which tended towards decorative effect. +The furniture of France may be said to be an exponent of the country's +history, so great has been the connection between French art, controlled +by passing events, and its commercial products. It is said that the +State pageants of the Louis XIV period tended to raise the tone of the +work of French artisans and to encourage artists. That was a period of +great development, for in the year 1670 the famous tapestry factories +sprang into existence; and it must be admitted that the designing of +those wonderful textiles influenced the manufacturers of furniture and +smaller objects both in France and in other countries. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--ANDIRONS WITH RATCHETS. + +FIG. 3.--ORNAMENTED CRESSET DOGS. + +FIG. 4.--TELESCOPIC RUSH AND CANDLE HOLDER. + +FIG. 5.--RATCHET RUSH AND CANDLE HOLDER.] + +Sir Christopher Wren is reputed to have been carried away by the +influence of the Louis XIV art. It was in that King's reign, too, that +Charles Boule perfected his veneers of tortoiseshell and fine brass +work. Buhl cabinets, fancy boxes, and many smaller objects found their +way into this country, and are now household curios. When Philip of +Orleans was Regent of France Boule introduced vermilion and gold-leaf as +the groundwork upon which to throw up the beauty of tortoiseshell, and +his designs became lavishly extravagant. Of these there are some +beautiful examples extant; one, a facsimile of a bureau made in Paris in +1769, so elaborate that its cost was reputed to have been about £20,000, +is to be seen in the Wallace Collection at Hertford House. In the reign +of Louis XV great encouragement was given to the importation of lacquer +work from China, influencing the creation of similar works in France; +and it was owing to his support that the Vernis Martin enamels or +varnishes were produced. Then came those beautiful paintings of +landscapes with which so many of the rarer household curios dating from +that period were ornamented. + +The French style came over the Channel. Thus it was that French +influence, as shown in its art in which its political history was +reflected, permeated into the workshops of England. Then came the +popularity of the designs of the Adam Brothers and Sheraton. During the +Revolution in France art was at a standstill, but as soon as Napoleon +had established his Empire artistic France began again, and we see its +influence in the Empire ornament of furniture and curios. Perhaps one of +the most striking instances of change in style was that in our own +country when the Prince of Orange came over and William and Mary were +crowned King and Queen. Dutch influence on the art of Great Britain was +immediately seen, and in the curios of that period there is a remarkable +difference between those produced at that time, when Englishmen were +content to allow the art of another nation to dominate their work, and +those of an earlier date. Dutch marquetry is seen in cabinets and +smaller household antiques in the manufacture of which panels were +applicable. There was a change in design about the year 1695, just after +Mary died, the characteristic seaweed following the floral, as if the +very flowers had been banished after the Queen's death. The influence of +the King and of his successors was very noticeable in the style and +decoration of household goods; the history of this country at that time, +just as the history of France had been, was reflected in the art of its +craftsmen. + + +A Cultivated Taste. + +The love of the antique is regarded by some as a cultivated taste. The +specialization upon any one branch of household curios may justly be +regarded as such, but surely not the regard, almost reverence, for +family relics, although they are but the common things of everyday life! +Their collection stimulates the connoisseur, and encourages him to fresh +exertions, and in that sense the habit of keeping a keen look out for +anything that may illumine previous researches or add greater lustre to +those things already secured, is gradually cultivated. + +Household curios are not unassociated with the folklore of the district +where such objects have been made, or were commonly in use; and the very +names of many things, the uses of which are almost forgotten, are +suggestive of former occupations and older methods of practising +household economy and the preparation of food. It is common knowledge +that the purest old English is met with in the dialects of the +countryside, and oftentimes once household words, now lost in modern +speech, are found again when the old names or original purposes of the +curios remaining to us are discovered. The cultivation of a taste for +gathering together household antiques is much to be desired, and in the +pursuit of such knowledge there is great pleasure--and as the value of +genuine antiques is ever rising, some profit, too. + + + + +II + +THE INGLE SIDE + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE INGLE SIDE + + Fire-making appliances--Tinder boxes--The fireplace--Andirons + and fire-dogs--Sussex backs--Fireirons and fenders--Trivets and + stools--Bellows. + + +In winter the ingle side, or its equivalent in a modern house, appears +to be the chief centre of attraction. It was ever so; and to-day the +lessened necessity for crowding round the fire and sitting in the ingle +nook, owing to modern methods of distributing the heat, in no way +lessens the attraction which draws an Englishman to the fire. In the +United States of America stoves of various kinds are deemed good +substitutes, but in this country the open fire is preferred, and modern +scientific research aims at perfecting and improving existing accepted +methods of heating and warming rooms rather than of displacing them. + +In the days when the earliest collectable curios of the ingle side were +being made by the village smith, and the local sculptor and mason were +preparing the chimney corner and the mantelpiece to surround the +fireplace, it was in front of the great open fire in the kitchen, +before which the large joints were roasted, that the retainers of the +baron and the landowner or lord of the manor assembled on winter nights. +It was around the fire which crackled on the hearth in the great hall +that the more favoured ones forgathered, and in the lesser homestead the +family drew up their chairs and found seats in the ingle nook, near the +fire, when snow was upon the ground, and frost and cold draughts made +them shiver in the houseplace. + +The fireplace has its attractions still, and builders and architects +have designed many cosy corners within reach of the fire. The +furnishings of the hearth have become more decorative as times have +become more luxurious and art has gained the ascendant; and sometimes +their greater ornament has been at the sacrifice of utility, but the +root principles of construction as seen in the older grates and fire +appointments remain. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--ANCIENT ROMAN FIRE-DOG. + +(_In the National Museum at Naples._)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--SUSSEX GRATE BACK, DATED 1588.] + + +Fire-making Appliances. + +It seems natural to inquire into the origin of the need of a fireplace, +and to do so we must go back to prehistoric times and trace the +discovery of fire-making apparatus, for without the means of lighting a +fire it is obvious that the grate would be useless. With the fire came +artificial light, the two great discoveries being perfected side by +side, sometimes the one gaining ground, at others the one that had +fallen behind shooting ahead as the result of some great discovery, or +the application of scientific principles not deemed of utility to the +one or the other as the case might be. The fire-making appliances +which were in use for the purpose of lighting fires were of course used +long before any scheme of artificial lighting--apart from the flames and +radiance from the fire. Professor Flinders Petrie, that great +investigator into the antiquities of the Ancients, tells us that +fire-making by friction has been found to exist in far-off times. It +would appear that the discovery of how to produce fire has been +accomplished independently by men living under very different conditions +and at all ages. The fire-making of the Ancients has been rediscovered +by primitive people in more recent days, although it is probable that +native races who until recently have been living apart from the great +world outside have moved slowly in their march of civilization, and have +been using the same methods as those first tried by their ancestors ages +ago. In the unrivalled collection of appliances got together by +Professor Petrie, there are fire drills from the Transvaal, bow drills +used by the Esquimaux, and fire ploughs from North Queensland. Lighting +fires must have been a slow and difficult task in the days when tinder +boxes were in request, for when Curfew rang and the _couvre de feu_ had +done its work there was no fire in which to thrust the torch, and the +entire process had to be gone over again when the fire had once more to +be kindled. + + +Tinder Boxes. + +The tinder box, formerly a real necessary, was to be found in every +house, and in many instances, in the days before lucifer matches, it was +a desirable pocket companion. Tinder boxes were made of different +materials; some were of wood, others of iron or brass. They lent +themselves to ornamentation: thus some were engraved and quite artistic; +many of the more recent ones were made of tin, and on the covers were +decorative little scenes. The contents of the tinder boxes were of +course flint and steel and tinder (something very inflammable, such as +scorched linen), with a damper for extinguishing the smouldering fire +after a light had been obtained, or in later days by the sulphur-tipped +match applied to it. Among the varieties are what are termed pistol +tinder boxes, instruments which contained a small charge of gunpowder, +which, when fired, lighted the tinder. Tinder pouches or purses +containing flint and tinder having a piece of steel riveted on to the +edge of the purse or pouch were a common form. Those brought over from +Central Asia were frequently decorated with dragons and the swastika +symbol, in damascened work. + +Many inventions were put forward by chemists before the perfecting of +the common match, the wax vesta, and the fusee. One of these was Berry's +apparatus, which he devised in the beginning of the nineteenth century, +calling it a "contrivance for lighting lamps in the dark." It consisted +of an acid bottle with a string by which a conical stopper could be +raised, and a chlorate match held against the stopper became ignited. + +Match boxes are collectable, and collectors of fire-making and lighting +contrivances often include a few old matches. The lucifer match +consisted of sticks tipped with potassium chlorate and sugar, held +together with gum, igniting when touched with concentrated sulphuric +acid. They were invented in 1805, and by the year 1820 had quite taken +the place of tinder boxes. Various lighting pastes were used, until the +improvements which resulted in the "safety" matches. The dangerous +sulphur and white phosphorus have given place in modern match-making to +sesqui-sulphate mixtures; and wax vestas and other "strikers" have +superseded the curious objects the collector meets with. + + +The Fireplace. + +In studying the curios of the fireplace, it is scarcely necessary to go +back beyond the grates and fire appointments which may be seen in the +old houses standing to-day. Even during the last generation or two there +have been many changes, and in rebuilding and refurnishing the +antiquities of the fireplace have in many instances been swept away. +During more recent days, however, there has been a greater appreciation +of the curio value of mantelpieces and old grates, and it is no uncommon +thing for hundreds and even thousands of pounds to be paid for rare +specimens. + +In some instances the fireplace may truly be said to have been the +central attraction, for the old grates and mantelpieces have often +realized as much as the whole of the remainder of the materials secured +when an old house has been pulled down. Some of these mantelpieces of +olden time were magnificent memorials of the sculptor's and the carver's +art. They included overmantels, the entire breastwork of the chimney +often being covered with stone or marble or black oak, right up to the +ceiling or the cornice. + +The open hearth was the earlier form of fireplace, and long before +chimneys were built logs of wood burned on it, and in still earlier +times in a basket or brazier, the smoke finding its way to the roof, the +rafters of which soon became blackened. Chimneys, however, are of early +date, and the household curios of the fireplace have almost entirely +been used under such conditions of fuel consumption, the up-draught of +the chimney carrying away the smoke and harmful gases. The firebacks and +the andirons, and later the fire-dogs, of the open fireplaces are +collectable curios of considerable interest, and the hobby may be +indulged in at a moderate cost. The collection of mantelpieces may be +left to the wealthy and to those who have baronial halls in which to +refix them. Fig. 1 represents an old fireplace in a panelled oak room +with a Tudor ceiling. There is a Sussex back of rather small size, and a +pair of andirons, on which a log of wood is shown reposing. An old +saucepan has been reared up in the corner, and there is a trivet on the +hearth. There is a very remarkable group of cresset dogs shown in Fig. +2. One pair of dogs or andirons has ratchets on which supplementary bars +were placed. These show an early advance from the simple andiron, and +point to the later developments of the fire-grate with the fast bars +which were to come. In the same group two rush-holders or candlesticks +are shown, one with a ratchet, the other adjusted on a simple rod, the +socket being held in place by a spring (see Figs. 4 and 5). + +As time went on and change of fuel came about, the forests of England +being gradually consumed on the domestic hearth, coal was substituted +for the fast-vanishing wood. Then it was that a change was needed, and +instead of the open fireplace and the andirons on which the logs of wood +had formerly been laid, iron baskets or grates in which coal could be +placed were made, so that the scattering of fuel and cinders on the open +hearth could be prevented. Sussex backs gave place in time to the grate +in which a metal back was frequently incorporated, flanked by the dogs +in front. Then came the closed-in grates and the hob-registers of the +eighteenth century, many being designed after the beautiful +ornamentation produced by the Adam Brothers; also the decorative metal +work enriched with ormolu and brass, which in due course again gave way +to the plain and oftentimes ugly register grates of the Victorian Age, +which in more modern times have been displaced by the reproductions of +the antique, and by well-grates and scientifically constructed stoves +and heating radiators by which heat can be conserved, the draught of the +fire and the chimney regulated, and the coal burned more economically on +slow-combustion and semi-slow-combustion principles. Science has taught +builders and others how to radiate the heat, and prevent that waste +which formerly went up the chimney, so that the necessity to sit round +the fire is not as great as it once was, and rooms large and small are +more evenly heated. The fireplace has once more become a thing of +beauty, and all its appointments are rendered harmonious with the +furnishings of the home, whether they are modern replicas of the +homesteads of earlier periods or constructed according to the newer art +of the present day. + + +Andirons and Fire-dogs. + +The brazier on a piece of stone in the centre of the room served well +when charcoal was plentiful, and although the smoke ascended amidst the +rafters the heat spread and there was plenty of room for many persons to +assemble "around" the fire. With chimneys built at the side of the house +for convenience, the timber was laid upon the hearth flag. Under the +conditions that appertained when great open chimneys allowed the rain +and snow to fall upon the fire or on the logs laid ready for the +burning, the difficulties of lighting a fire were experienced. Then the +local smith came to the aid of the "domestic" or serf, and hammered into +shape what were termed andirons, their use making it easier to light the +logs, giving a current of air under them, causing them to burn brighter. +The andirons were afterwards called fire-dogs, and in course of time +bars rested on hooks or ratchets, or were laid across the dogs. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--THREE SINGLE DOGS OR ANDIRONS.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--PAIR OF DATED SUSSEX ANDIRONS (1625). + +FIG. 10.--PAIR OF SUSSEX ANDIRONS. + +(_In the collection of Mr. Wayte, of Edenbridge._)] + +There are no records of the earliest inventors of andirons or dogs. It +is quite clear that small fire-dogs were in use in Rome at an early +period; the one illustrated in Fig. 6, measuring 6¾ in. in height, of +artistic form, two draped figures being the supports of the arch, is in +the National Museum in Naples, where there are many other beautiful +examples of early Roman metal work. In the seventeenth century some of +the more elaborate ornamental cast brass fire-dogs were enriched with +black and white or blue and white enamel, several varieties of fireside +ornaments being decorated in the same way. + +Enamel thus applied to metal is exceptionally valuable, as much as two +hundred guineas being paid for an enamelled pair of fire-dogs. It is the +ordinary forms of cast or wrought dogs with which collectors are mostly +familiar, especially those made in the famous Sussex ironfields, such as +those shown in Figs. 8, 9, and 10, which are of early date, the pair +illustrated in Fig. 9 being dated 1625, the others probably +contemporary. Single examples of similar designs are shown in Fig. 8. +The need of the metal furnishings of the hearth--as the chimney places +of the smaller manor houses and the dwellings of the traders were being +erected--caused an impetus to the trade of the ironfounder and smith, +and the founders and smiths of the Sussex villages came to the aid of +the builder. There are dated examples from the sixteenth century +onwards, recording the periods when these interesting souvenirs of +domestic building and the great Sussex ironfields--now deserted--were in +operation. + + +Sussex Backs. + +There is a peculiar attraction about the castings made in Sussex in the +days when the foundries of that county were in full work, and many +villages were filled with busy pattern-makers, moulders, and founders +carrying on a thriving industry in districts which have now been given +up to the plough; for the Sussex ironfields have been abandoned, as when +the timber of the district was consumed it was impossible to work the +forges economically, for coal was far distant and transport costs +prohibitive. The old grate backs for which the Sussex foundries were +famous in the seventeenth century were often modelled on Dutch designs, +and some showed German characteristics. There are many noted English +designs, too, mostly taking the forms of coats of arms and the shields +and crests of the landlords for whom the stove-plates were made, some +becoming "stock" patterns and often duplicated. There is quite a fine +collection of these grate backs in several museums, and some good +examples can still be bought from dealers whose agents secure them from +time to time when property is being rebuilt. In the Victoria and Albert +Museum there is a long oblong plate on which is cast the arms of Browne +of Brenchley, in Kent, probably made in the second half of the +seventeenth century. There are others with cherubs and curious +supporters of shields of arms. A still earlier piece, probably cast +about the year 1600, is an oblong Sussex back deeply recessed, on which +is the arms of John Blount, Earl of Devonshire, another bearing the +Royal arms of the Tudor period. In Hampton Court Palace there are some +especially fine grate backs, mostly bearing the Royal arms. At a little +earlier period the cast grate backs were chiefly plain with isolated +crests or designs scattered over the surface, often quite irregularly. + +The three fine examples of Sussex backs illustrated are typical of +popular styles. Fig. 11 shows the Royal lion of England, accompanied by +the emblems appearing on the Royal arms in the seventeenth century; the +Tudor rose crowned, the Scottish thistle, and the French fleur-de-lis +indicative of the throne of France to which English sovereigns then laid +some claim. The date of this fine back is 1649. Fig. 7 is of an earlier +period, being dated 1588, beneath which are the initials "I.F.C." There +are also roses and fleurs-de-lis, as well as anchors and other emblems. +The back shown in Fig. 12 has for its design the Royal arms surrounded +by the Garter, and the initials "C.R.," a design which was duplicated +very extensively soon after the Restoration. It will be noticed that the +Royal arms formed the design of the Sussex back shown in position in +Fig. 1. Some of the German and Dutch designs are very curious, many of +them representing scriptural subjects, like Moses and the brazen +serpent; the death of Absalom; the temptation of Joseph; and the +often-repeated story of the Garden of Eden. + +In the American museums there are some very interesting examples of +foundry work; some of the cast backs, evidently modelled on German or +Dutch designs, take the form of stove-plates, including both front and +side plates, mostly bearing dates in the middle of the eighteenth +century. Pennsylvania was the chief district in which these plates were +made, some being cast by William Siegel, who went to America from +Germany in 1758, and erected what was known as the Berkshire furnace. A +curious early stove-plate in an American collection, dated 1736, has +upon it a scene known as "the dance after the wedding." It is said to +have been used in the front of what was known as the German wall-warming +stove. + +In form the Sussex shape is usually rectangular--that is, wider than its +height. It would appear as if the back was at first moulded from a +wooden plate, the crest, initials, or design being then impressed by +movable moulds or stamps, generally of wood. These were irregularly +placed, consequently crowns, roses, crosses, family badges, and all +kinds of emblems were dotted promiscuously over the plate. Some of the +plain plates with cable-twist borders were probably used as hearthstones +and not as backs. The styles which were gradually developed were chiefly +on the same lines as those which became popular in France. Their use +lingered long in that country for until recently in many an old family +mansion might have been seen a _plaque de cheminée_, on which was the +coat of arms and supporters of the original owner of the château, and +sometimes of the kings of France. The Sussex ironfounders worked chiefly +at Cowden, Hawkhurst, and Lamberhurst, and there were forges at +Cranbrook, Coudhurst, Tonbridge, and Biddenden. The principal +ironmasters of Kent were the Knights and the Tichbornes, whose +descendants became baronets. + + "Life is not as idle ore, + But iron dug from central gloom, + And heated hot with burning fears, + And dipped in baths of hissing tears, + And battered with the shocks of doom + To shape and use." + + TENNYSON, _In Memoriam_. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--SUSSEX BACK WITH ROYAL EMBLEMS.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--SUSSEX BACK WITH ARMS AND ROYAL INITIALS. + +(_In the collection of Mr. Wayte, of Edenbridge._)] + + +Fireirons and Fenders. + +Fire brasses or fireirons came into vogue with grates, although the sets +now regarded as old fire brasses, some of which are very elaborate and +massive, made at the beginning of the nineteenth century, were first +used when fenders came into vogue; instead of being reared up alongside +the fire-dogs in the chimney corner they rested on the fenders. There is +not much to distinguish the variations in fireirons except the obvious +indications of older workmanship and design, when contrasted with modern +"irons." The shovel pans gave the artist in metal some opportunity for +showing his skill in design and perforated work. It is probable that the +earliest form of shovel was that known as the "slide," its use being to +shovel up the ashes of a wood fire, an operation necessary more +frequently then than in modern days when coal has been the principal +fuel consumed. Some of the older specimens are dated, and bear the +owner's initials; thus one authentic specimen from Shopnoller, in the +Quantock Hills, is engraved, "I T. 1784." Many of the Dutch metal +workers produced very beautiful and decorative stands on which miniature +sets of rich brasses were hung; some of the old English fireside stands +were arranged as receptacles for tongs, shovel, and brush, and now and +then the baluster stem supported by a tripod base had a central +attachment from which a toddy kettle could be slung. The brass toddy +kettle formerly stood upon the hob of the grate, singing merrily, always +ready for the cup of tea which "cheers but not inebriates," or, as was +frequently the case, for the preparation of hot toddy or spirit. + +The evolution of the fender forms a pleasing story in connection with +the ingle side. Perhaps the earlier form likely to interest collectors +of household curios is that made of perforated brass, often some 8 in. +or 10 in. in depth. These fenders standing on claw feet were afterwards +fitted with bottom plates of iron, on which was a ridge or rest against +which the fire brasses were prevented from slipping. Then came iron or +steel scroll-shaped fenders, tapering down from a few inches in height +at the ends to centres almost level with the ground. To obviate the +inconvenience of there being no resting-place for the fireirons loose +supports were fitted into sockets at the ends, and these afterwards were +cast as part of the scroll. Then came the stiff and formal early +Victorian metal work--iron fenders with steel tops relieved occasionally +by ormolu ornament. These in their turn gave way to fender kerbs of +metal, stone, marble, or tiles, and loose ornamented fire-dogs which +have in more recent times served as rests for the fire brasses. + + +Trivets and Stools. + +Combination appliances were early adopted, although we are apt at times +to associate combined utensils with modern innovations. The old English +trivet of wrought iron made in the eighteenth century was frequently +"improved" by the addition of a toasting fork, which could be adjusted +and set at certain angles so that the toast could be left in front of +the fire for a few moments until it was quite ready to be taken off and +put on a plate standing conveniently on the trivet until the dish or +rack of toast was complete. (Some scarce trivets are illustrated in +"Chats on Old Copper and Brass.") + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--FINE CARVED WALNUT WOOD BELLOWS. + +(_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)] + + +Bellows. + +The Germans were noted for the manufacture of decorative bellows cut and +carved in quaint designs, some of the finest examples being made in the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Others were made in Holland, some +of the Dutch bellows being inlaid with mother-o'-pearl. There are also +examples of old English carving, the style of the ornament taking the +form of the designs on contemporary oak furniture. Some of the largest +and handsomest bellows of English make are of late seventeenth-century +workmanship. The example illustrated in Fig. 13 is a magnificent +specimen, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington. + + + + +III + +THE LIGHTS OF FORMER DAYS + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LIGHTS OF FORMER DAYS + + Rushlights and holders--Candles, moulds, and boxes--Snuffers, + trays, and extinguishers--Oil lamps--Lanterns. + + +Household lighting has been one continuous effort to render the hours of +darkness bright, and to provide by artificial means a luminosity which +would, if not actually rivalling the sun, enable men to carry on their +usual avocations with the same ease, convenience, and comfort after +daylight had disappeared as during the earlier portion of the day. Every +stage which has been advanced in artificial lighting has been welcomed +in the home just as much as in the factory and in the workshop, for +there are many daily duties as well as pleasures and amusements which +are carried out much more satisfactorily when a good light is available +than when there are shadows and dark corners only dimly lighted. + +To realize what artificial lighting was in the days now happily long +past, it would be necessary to visit some old-world village, if one +could be found, where there had been no attempt at street lighting, and +in which not even oil had penetrated. The candles of very early times +did not give more than a dim glimmer, and the darkness of mediæval +England can be imagined from the primitive lighting appliances which are +preserved. Fortunately the entire story of lighting as science came to +the aid of trader and householder is revealed in the lights of former +days, which as time went on became more varied and numerous, found in +collections of well-authenticated specimens. The suggested caution +implied is not unnecessary, for the periods overlap, and there is but +little to show when such things as lamps and lanterns were actually +made. + + +Rushlights and Holders. + +In tracing the development of lighting from quite homely beginnings, +rushlights, prepared by the cottager and the farm hand for the winter +supply, seem to come first on the list. Rushlights, however, were used +in this country by many until comparatively recent times side by side +with lights much more advanced. But centuries earlier than we have any +record of artificial lighting in this country, and equally as long +before any of the earliest British curios of lighting were used, +lighting engineers, if we may so call them, in Greece, Rome, Egypt, and +still earlier in other Eastern countries, were far advanced. None of the +lighting schemes of the Ancients, however, produced much more than the +dim light of the swinging lamp in which oil was consumed. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--THREE RUSHLIGHT HOLDERS. + +(_In the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff._)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.--THREE VARIETIES OF OLD OIL LAMPS.] + +To range side by side a number of rushlight holders taken from districts +widely apart, it becomes evident that there was a striking similarity +between the earlier types. The smiths everywhere seem to have +fashioned a simple contrivance by which the rushlight or early candle +could be held upright, and then, to give the "stick" solidity, the iron +shaft was fastened securely into a wooden block, which was very often +quite out of proportion to the size and weight of the stand, and +apparently unnecessarily large and heavy. In the larger examples the +holder is often made to slide upon an upright rod so as to be useful at +different heights. The sliding rod was needed, for the light so dim +could only be of real service when quite close to the person using it, +or to the work it was intended to illumine (see Figs. 4 and 5). + +Although some of the more elaborate and advanced holders were of copper +or brass, most of them were of iron, the work of local smiths, few of +whom made any attempt to decorate what they evidently regarded as +strictly utilitarian articles (see Fig. 14). Although rushlights +antedated candles, some of the holders were made to answer a dual +purpose, and on the same stem or slide as the rushlight holder there was +a candle socket, an important feature fully exemplified in Figs. 4 and +5. + + +Candles, Moulds, and Boxes. + +The collector of household curios does not trouble about the candles; +his object is to secure a few candle moulds, candle boxes, and, of +course, candlesticks. It may, however, be convenient here to refer to +the moulding of candles which was at one time a domestic duty just as it +had been to collect rushes and after they were dried dip them in fat, +and to make lights which would burn with more or less steadiness. + +The candles were made from various fats, much of which was accumulated +in the kitchen during the processes of cooking, supplemented by other +ingredients deemed best for the purpose. The candle moulds or tubes in +which wicks were inserted were of varying capacities and ranged from two +to a dozen or more. The moulds were dipped in troughs of fat, having +been heated sufficiently to melt the fat. The process was by no means +new, in that it was used in this country by the Saxons; and at a still +earlier period candles were made by the Romans, for among the sundry +objects picked up among the uncovered ruins of Herculaneum have been +small pieces of candle ends. + +There was but little advance in the art of candle-making, for the +candle, briefly described as a rod of solidified tallow or wax +surrounding a wick, remained almost unimproved until the eighteenth +century, when spermaceti was introduced, and in more recent years +paraffin has been substituted. + +Candles were hung up by their wicks in bunches until required for use, +but those needed for immediate supply were always kept in candle boxes. +It is these boxes of copper, brass, and tin which are sought after. The +decorated japanned tin boxes are very pleasing, and some of the best, +ornamented after the "Chinese style" or painted with little scenes, and +rich in gold ornament, especially those made with other japanned wares +at Pontypool in South Wales, are desirable acquisitions. + +Of the varieties of candlesticks there is no end. The two great +divisions are the pillar or table candlesticks, and the chamber +candlesticks. The first named are chiefly seen with a small socket and +flange to catch the running tallow, the last mentioned have larger +dishes which catch the drips from candles which are being carried about. +Among the varieties are the earliest form of pricket candlestick on +which the candle was "stuck," the bell candlesticks, and the +candlesticks which were fixed on brackets against the wall. As time went +on varied materials were introduced, and ornament was chiefly in accord +with prevailing styles, which influenced the maker of candlesticks as +all other metal work. Iron, copper, brass, pewter, silver, and Britannia +metal and wood have been used, and many of the handsomest chandeliers +and brackets are those made of lustres and cut glass. The large +chandeliers hung a century or two ago at great expense in the centre of +large rooms have frequently been retained, and gas and electric light +have been introduced instead of candles. In Fig. 16 we illustrate two +exceedingly well-preserved old walnut floor-candlesticks, with brass +sconces. They come from the Sister Isle, where there are still curios to +be met with. + + +Snuffers, Trays, and Extinguishers. + +There were difficulties to contend with in the use of candles, chiefly +on account of the irregular burning of candles when exposed to the +slightest draught, and to the imperfect combustion, which left a charred +piece of wick which it was necessary to remove to make the candle burn +once more. Then, again, the extinction of a burning candle involved some +skill, and instruments were devised to effect this without causing +unpleasant odours or smoke to arise. Previous to the use of lanterns out +of doors, and oftentimes when halls and corridors were imperfectly +lighted, torches thrust into the open fire and thus lighted were used. +Extinguishers of iron were frequently erected near an outside door, or +added to the iron railings outside the house. These were for the purpose +of extinguishing links--many such are to be seen still outside old +London houses. They were the prototypes from which originated the +ordinary form of chamber candle extinguisher, frequently fastened to the +"stick" by a chain. + +The extinguishers used in the early days of candles are known now as +snuffer-extinguishers, to distinguish them from snuffers (the old name +was _doubters_). In form they were not unlike scissors; the two circular +metal plates of which they were formed closed in and compressed the +wick, thereby extinguishing the light. The earlier snuffers had very +large boxes, and some were remarkably handsome, an exceptionally fine +example being shown in Fig. 17. They were discovered in an old house at +Corton, in Dorset, in 1768, and were described by a writer towards the +close of the eighteenth century thus: "They are of brass and weigh about +6 ounces. Their construction consists of two equilateral cavities, by +the edges of which the snuff is cut off and received into the cavity +from which it is not got out without much trouble." Snuffers of iron, +and later of steel, are the commoner forms, but they are frequently +of brass and of silver and Sheffield plate. + +[Illustration: FIG. 16.--TWO WALNUT WOOD FLOOR-CANDLESTICKS. + +(_In the collection of W. Egan & Sons, Ltd., of Cork._)] + +The need of some convenient tray or receptacle for the snuffers, not +always over-clean when they had been used a few times, was met at first +by what are known as snuffer stands made of wrought metal, and often +very ornamental. Then came the oblong tray of convenient shape, +following in its decoration and ornament prevailing styles in other +domestic tin or metal work. In this connection it should be pointed out +that there are many varieties of taper holders and stands used for the +small wax tapers, then common on the writing table. + + +Oil Lamps. + +Although oil had long been a recognized illuminant from which a good +artificial light could be obtained, it was not until the eighteenth +century that any marked attempt was made to substitute oil for candles +in this country. For really beautiful lamps we have to go back to the +bronze lamps of ancient Greece and Rome, and the terra-cotta lamps of +the early Christians, many of which were exceedingly interesting. +Householders in England, and in America, too, preferred the beautiful +silver candlesticks and those charming and artistic scrolls which once +decorated the walls of the houses of the well-to-do. There came a time, +however, when oil lamps were reinstated, and although candles still held +sway and were difficult to displace, inventors and makers of oil lamps +began to compete for the lighting industry. The three old lamps now in +the Cardiff Museum, shown in Fig. 15, must be classed among the commoner +types of early lamps, once plentiful in farmhouses and cottages. + +The lamp used on the table in Victorian days was the moderator lamp, the +principle of which was a spring forcing the oil up through the +burner--but such lamps have no claim upon the curio hunter either for +beauty of form or rarity of material. These lamps, which burned colza or +seed oil, were superseded in time by paraffin and petroleum lamps. Now +and then some wonderful invention flashed across the scene, but although +various modern improved burners have come and gone, the lamp, excepting +for purposes of ornament and decorative effect, has given way to coal +gas and, in more modern times, to electric lighting. There are few +household curios of any value associated with oil lighting, and as yet +gas is too new! + + +Lanterns. + +The portable lantern made of iron and tin and glazed with horn was long +an indispensable feature in every household. Horn lanterns were carried +about everywhere in the days before street lighting was general, and to +some extent they are needed in country districts to-day. There is a +remarkable similarity between the modern glass lanterns of circular type +and the old watchman's lanterns of a couple of centuries ago. The same +design seems to have served the purpose through many generations, and to +have been duplicated again and again. Among the ancient lanterns are +some in which candles have been burned, and others where the candle +socket has been utilized for the insertion of a socket oil lamp. In more +modern times the horn has given place to glass. The carriage lamps of +former days served their purposes well, and although some are certainly +antique, they are by no means desirable curios. The light they gave when +driving through a country lane was indeed a dim flicker compared with +the powerful arcs of the modern motor-car. + +[Illustration: FIG. 17.--FINE PAIR OF ANCIENT SNUFFERS.] + +The beacon fire is no longer seen on housetops, neither is the lantern +in the yard and the vestibule furnished with a candle; but curiously +enough, even in the most modern appointed houses, so great is the love +for the antique in the furnishings of to-day, that beautifully modelled +little replicas of the old horn lanterns are hung in entrance halls and +passages--but instead of the candle there is the electric bulb! + + + + +IV + +TABLE APPOINTMENTS + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TABLE APPOINTMENTS + + Cutlery: Knives, forks, and spoons--Salt cellars--Cruet + stands--Punch and toddy--Porringers and cups--Trays and + waiters--The tea table--Cream jugs--Sugar tongs and + nippers--Caddies--Cupids--Nutcrackers--Turned woodware. + + +It is very difficult to realize in these days of refinement and of +comparative luxury, even in the homes of the working classes, what the +table appointments must have been in early English homes. Sometimes +glowing accounts are given of the feasting of olden time; but no doubt +many of the great occasions contrasted in their luxurious magnificence +with the usual mode of living. They were, however, the days of feeding +rather than of refinement in partaking of the sumptuous feast. The table +appointments on such occasions were crude and simple, and they were +altogether absent from the tables of the lower classes. It is difficult, +indeed, to realize that the conditions under which people lived in +mediæval England, in the days when the baron and his followers assembled +in the great hall, and with his chosen companions sat above the salt, +satisfied men of wealth; it was, however, in accord with the spirit of +the age. + +The primitive methods of serving up food and eating it observed by the +majority of people then would be looked upon with disgust nowadays by +every one. The table appointments were not only very few, but those +which were used, like the knife and spoon, were often brought into the +feasting hall by those who were to use them. The polished oaken board +was often laden with rough and readily prepared dishes, the result of +some fortunate expedition or of a prosperous hunt. The knife was the +chief implement used until comparatively recent days, for forks are +quite a modern innovation. The spoon, it is true, goes back to hoary +antiquity, but in England, even in the Middle Ages, spoons were used +chiefly for ecclesiastical purposes. In Harrison's _Elizabethan England_ +we read that the times had changed, for instead of "treen platters" +there were pewter plates, and tin or silver spoons instead of wood. + + +Cutlery: Knives, Forks, and Spoons. + +The term "cutlery," derived from _coutellerie_, the French for cutlery, +had been evolved from _culter_, the Latin for knife. Primarily it +referred to cutting instruments, and especially to knives, but in a +general way, when speaking of table cutlery, spoons and forks may +appropriately be included. Early records referring to cutlery +indiscriminately use the terms knives and swords; indeed, the arms +granted to the London Cutlers' Company in the sixteenth year of the +reign of Edward IV are two swords, crossed; later a crest, consisting +of an elephant bearing a castle, was added. Homer tells us of knives +carried at the girdle in his day, and describes them as of triangular +form. The Anglo-Saxons and the Normans carried about with them met-soex +or eating knives, but it was not until the end of the fifteenth century +that knives were used at table, other than those which were carried at +the girdle, every man using his own cutlery. In England, Sheffield was +early noted for the manufacture of knives, for Chaucer tells us, "A +Scheffeld thwitel bare he in his hose." Another form of spelling the +word which denoted knife was _troytel_, and from these terms is derived +"whittle." The jack knife came in in the days of James I, after whom it +was named, the original term being Jacques-te-leg, these knives shutting +into a groove or handle without spring or lock. + +[Illustration: FIG. 18.--HANDSOMELY DECORATED KNIFE CASE AND CONTENTS. + +(_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)] + +The making of a table knife even in early times necessitated the work of +many hands, for taking part in its production were the smiths who forged +it, the bladers who made the blade out of the metal already hammered, +and the haft-makers. When the knife was complete it was handed to the +sheath-makers, who fashioned the sheath of leather, and sometimes +encased it in metal. The host did not provide table cutlery for his +guests until the reign of Elizabeth. In earlier times it was left to the +traveller to provide himself with whatever he deemed necessary; thus it +is recorded that when Henry VI made a tour in the north he carried with +him knife, fork, and spoon, as it was stated "he scarcely expected to +find any at the houses of the nobility." From that custom, no doubt, +arose the common practice of fitting separate sets, and afterwards sets +for more than one person, in cases, the materials used being for many +years the beautifully embossed _cuir boulli_ leather work. Queen +Elizabeth carried her knife and other appointments at her girdle, a +custom followed by her ladies; although it is said that at the Court of +the virgin queen it was customary for the gentlemen courtiers to cut up +the meat on the platters of the fair ones with whom they were dining; +the ladies at that time being content to prove the truth of the adage, +"Fingers were made before forks." + +Collectors soon realize that there were many forms of knives even +amongst those specially reserved for table use. Both blades and handles +have passed through many stages in the gradual evolution from the +hunting knife to the cutlery on the modern dinner table. The blades have +been narrow and pointed like daggers, and they have been +scimitar-shaped, and rounded off at the point. The qualities of the +material have changed, too, Sheffield cutlers and those of other places +vying with one another. The cutlery trade has long drifted north, +although at one time the members of the London Cutlers' Company were +proud of the quality of their goods, and boasted of their knives being +"London made, haft and blade." This ancient Guild tried hard to maintain +their pre-eminence, and in the days of Elizabeth obtained a Charter +prohibiting all strangers from bringing any knives into England from +beyond the seas. + +The carving knife seems to have had a separate descent from the large +hunting knives used to cut up barons of beef, roasted oxen, and portions +which were cut off the joint for each individual or for several persons. + +Forks for table use were a much later invention, although there were +larger meat forks, flesh forks, and heavier iron kitchen appliances (see +Chapter V). + +In very early times small forks, of which there are some in the +Guildhall Museum dating from Roman and Saxon times, were chiefly used +for fruit. The use of forks at table, for meat, is attributed to the +invention of an Italian, and the custom thus started rapidly spread "in +good society" on the Continent of Europe. Thomas Coryate, a noted +traveller, is said to have introduced them into Germany, and afterwards +into England, where their use was at first much ridiculed as effeminate, +the "fork-carving" traveller being spoken of in contempt. + +Forks were in regular use in England early in the sixteenth century. +Dean Stanley, in his _Memorials of Westminster Abbey_, quotes from the +Chapter Book of 1554, in which it is stated by Dean Weston (1553-6) that +the College dinners "became somewhat disorderly, _forks_ and knives were +tossed freely to and fro." The old table forks were two-pronged, the +prongs being long and set near together; the steel forks of the early +nineteenth century were three-pronged, and another prong was added +later, the latter form being adapted by the makers of silver forks in +more recent years. + +In Fig. 18 is shown a very handsome knife case and its contents, which +are to be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In Fig. 19 another +example of a set of knife, fork, and spoon in the same collection is +illustrated. + +The spoon is, like the knife, of great antiquity. It is said to have +been suggested by shells on the shore, and by the hollow of the hand +which in the most primitive days was used to drink with. The most +beautiful old spoons are those made of silver, a magnificent pair being +shown in Fig. 20. Many such spoons are now almost priceless, especially +the much-valued Apostle spoons, often given in olden time as christening +gifts. Silver spoons more correctly belong to antique silver, which +forms another branch of curio-collecting. + +Of spoons there are many made of other materials than silver, some being +carved in wood (see Chapter XIII), others of ivory, and some of bone. +Many of the older spoons were made of brass or latten; but when silver +became popular table spoons of silver were procured whenever it was +possible to afford them, and a collection including in the varieties the +Apostle and the seal top, and its various developments from the rat-tail +to the fiddle, is obtainable. As regarding spoons Westman has written: +"The spoon is one of the first things wanted when we come into the +world, and it is one of the last things we part with before we go out." + +[Illustration: FIG. 19.--KNIFE, FORK, AND SPOON. + +(_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)] + +The collector revels in the beautifully engraved blades of the rarer +curios; in the handles so varied in their materials and ornament; and in +the cases in which knives, forks, and spoons have in many instances been +preserved. From the curios in museums and from family treasures it is +evident that much of the cutlery has been presented as donations to the +housekeeping outfit of a newly-married couple, or given as presentation +sets or pieces on some special occasion; just as cutlery is often chosen +for presentation purposes to-day. + +From the sixteenth century onwards such sets have been made and +presented. The recently arranged cutlery room in the Victoria and Albert +Museum at South Kensington, that great art treasure-house of the nation, +contains an exceptionally representative collection. In some instances +the examples are only single specimens which may have been presented +separately, or they may have formed part of a more complete set. There +are sets of carving knives with long blades, forks with double prongs, +and broad-pointed flat-bladed servers, many of them etched and engraved +all over. Even after carvers were regular features on the table the +small knives and forks were brought by the guests who were bidden to the +feast, for it must be remembered that it was not until 1670 that Prince +Rupert brought the first complete set of forks to this country. + +In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a very beautiful little +knife, the handle of which is delicately carved, the group which +constitutes the design representing our first parents standing beneath +the Tree of Knowledge, in the midst of which the wily serpent is +cunningly concealed. + +Another pair consisting of a very handsome knife and fork have handles +representing animals and grotesque figures. These were the work of Dutch +artists in the seventeenth century; but curiously enough the quaint +leather case in which this knife and fork are enclosed was evidently of +earlier date, for it has upon it "1598." Some of the cases of leather +made by the _cuir boulli_ process are circular, there being separate +holes for each of the knives they were intended to contain. Some of the +knives are very curious, especially those with wooden or horn handles of +sixteenth and early seventeenth-century make, which have been found in +considerable numbers in Moorfields and Finsbury, along with sharpening +steels. The ordinary table knives of a little later date, when they were +sold in half-dozens and dozens along with two-pronged forks, were +decorative, their handles being made of materials varying in quality and +in the excellence of their manufacture. One of the most beautiful sets +of rare historic value now on view in the Victoria and Albert Museum is +part of a set of fourteen, the ivory handles being carved to represent +the kings and queens of England. These rare examples of the English +cutler's and ivory carver's art, dated 1607, have blades damascened with +gold. There are knives also with handles of amber, one very remarkable +set in amber over foil being decorated with the figure of Christ and His +Apostles on one side of the handles, and on the other side there is the +Apostles' Creed. + +Among other materials used in the manufacture of handles for knives and +forks, some of the latter having two prongs and others three, chiefly +made in the eighteenth century, are: Battersea enamel on copper, +Staffordshire agate ware, Meissen porcelain, Venetian millefiore glass, +Bow porcelain, jasper, Venetian aventurine glass, enamelled earthenware, +and Chantilly porcelain. In many instances these handles made of such +beautiful materials are further decorated by miniature painted scenes +and floral ornaments. Another favourite material is bone, some of the +older handles being stained, mostly green, afterwards decorated with +applied silver in floral and geometrical designs. There are a few +maple-wood handles of the eighteenth century, and others of stag's horn +and of shagreen. + +The knife box with its divisions, referred to elsewhere, is exemplified +in many remarkably fine cases to be seen in our museums and in isolated +specimens in private collections. + +The interest in a collection of household utensils is greatly enhanced +by the halo of romance which surrounds the uses of some of them. This is +seen and understood by the collector of cutlery perhaps more than of +anything else, for many old customs have been associated with the giving +of cutlery, and superstitious beliefs have crept in. + +The gift of cutlery at weddings was not always the prosaic thing it is +nowadays, for the cases and even the knives were often accompanied by +some sentimental rhyme or poetic inscription. Two knives, apparently the +gift of bride and bridegroom to one another, now in the British Museum, +are engraved with separate inscriptions. One reads:-- + + "My love is fixt I will not range, + I like my choice I will not change"; + +while on the other is engraved:-- + + "Witt, wealth, and beauty all doe well + But constant love doth fair excell. 1676." + +The early uses of knives in association with religious rites are +interesting, as, for instance, the golden knife with which the old +Druids cut the mistletoe with pomp and much mystic ceremony. The early +Christians made use of the knife and symbolized the cross when feasting; +indeed, the old country habit--which is now deemed a sign of +vulgarity--of crossing the knife and fork after dining, took its origin +in that act of devotion, for together they form the Greek cross. +Browning refers to the custom when he says:-- + + "Knife and fork he never lays + Crosswise, to my recollection, + As I do in Jesu's praise." + +In Russia this custom of the peasantry was deep-rooted; and there they +were careful to take up the knife and fork and lay them down on the +plate crossed before commencing their often meagre meal. + +[Illustration: FIG. 20.--PAIR OF DECORATED SPOONS. + +(_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)] + +Strange to say that although knives and forks have been crossed in +reverence, to cross knives has been deemed unlucky, and to present a +maiden with a pair of scissors--two crossed blades--has long been held +by those who believe in such signs as unlucky. To give a knife is to +"cut luck"--so the legend runs; hence so many when presenting a pocket +knife will demand a penny (as the smallest coin when silver pennies were +in circulation) in return. The Rev. Samuel Bishop, M.A., Master of the +Merchant Taylors' School in 1795, wrote the following lines on the +subject of presenting a knife to his wife:-- + + "A knife, dear girl, cuts love, they say-- + Mere modish love perhaps it may: + For any tool of any kind + Can separate what was never join'd." + + +Salt Cellars. + +The condiments of the table were usually supplied in separate vessels. +The use of salt with meat goes back to primitive times, although we have +few records of the vessels in which it was served. The Arab chief offers +his guest salt as an act of friendship, and as such it is partaken of. +The classic Ancients consecrated salt before using it, and the salt +cellar was placed upon the table together with the first fruits "for the +gods," those to whom they were offered being generally Hercules or +Mercury. The Greek salt cellars were shaped like bowls, and as the salt +became an important feature as a dividing line between rich and poor, +the size of the cellar grew. To realize the importance of the salt +cellar in mediæval England, we have only to visit the Tower of London, +where the great salt cellars of State are kept. The large standing salt +was the dividing line upon the table. Salt cellars dating from the +fourteenth century are in existence, and many curiously shaped designs +intervened before the bell-shaped salts which were fashionable in the +days of Elizabeth and the trencher salts of Queen Anne and the early +Georges. Salt cellars with feet came into fashion in the reign of George +II; then followed many minor changes until the beautifully perforated +salt cellars with blue liners bearing hall-marks dating from the close +of the eighteenth century came into vogue. It is from among the Georgian +table appointments that collectors gather most of their specimens. The +materials of which these salt cellars were made vary; there are sterling +silver, antique pewter, and Sheffield plate; and there are salt cellars +of china and porcelain which may well be included in a collection of +table curios. + + +Cruet Stands. + +The separate bottles or cruets, casters, mustard pots, and very rarely +salts, were gradually gathered together and placed in a frame which grew +big in late Georgian and early Victorian days. For convenience the stand +was placed in the centre of the table, and often made to revolve. Such +cruets are met with in silver and other metals, also in papier-maché, +often ornamented with mother-o'-pearl and painted flowers. The greatest +interest, however, is found in collecting separate bottles, such as +those charming Bristol glass cruets, ornamented with flowers and +lettered with the names of their contents, such as "VINEGAR," "SALAD +OIL," "MUSTARD," "PEPPER." + +There is a greater variety of form in the metal cruets and casters, +which followed the prevailing styles silversmiths were then employing. +Especially graceful are the old pepperettes and vase-shaped casters. The +woodturner, too, contributed to the table appointments of the eighteenth +century, and the carver made some curious and even grotesque figures, +the heads of which took off, and thus formed pepper casters. One of the +most noted grotesque sets reminds us of the Toby fill-pot jugs in form, +a complete set consisting of two salts, two mustards, and two pepper +pots. Genuine specimens are very difficult to meet with now, although +those Staffordshire cruets have been reproduced, and are offered either +singly or in sets; but the difference between the genuine antique and +the modern replica ought not to deceive even an amateur. + +There are varieties of mustard pots, which were in turn round, oval, +square, hexagonal, and cylindrical, some being like miniature well +buckets with perforated sides and blue metal liners. + + +Punch and Toddy. + +A hundred years ago the punch bowl was inseparable from the convivial +feast. It was a favourite sideboard ornament, and found in frequent use +on the dining table, round which smokers and card players drew up and +filled their glasses with punch and toddy. Ladles were indispensable, +and were varied in form and in the materials of which they were +composed. Punch ladles were in earlier days made of cherry-wood, mounted +with a silver rim and fitted with a long handle, often made of twisted +horn. The horn, which was somewhat pliable, was secured to the bowl by +a silver socket. Other ladles were made entirely of silver, some having +a current coin of the realm, a guinea preferably, fixed in the bottom of +the bowl--for luck. Some of the ladles were beautifully decorated in +repousse, others were shaped like sauce boats; there were ladles without +lips, others deep like the porringers, and yet others were quite round +like a drinking bowl. Some are family heirlooms, others have been +purchased in curio shops, and unfortunately during the last few years so +great has been the demand for them that many modern copies have been +palmed off as genuine antiques. The hall-mark on the rim is in many +instances a guarantee of age, although some of the genuine specimens do +not appear to have been hall-marked at all. The fact that an old coin is +found fixed within the bowl is no criterion of antiquity, and does not +always indicate that the punch ladle itself is contemporary with the +coin, for old coins are common enough and readily fixed in new ladles. + +Collectors of old china simply revel in punch bowls. Punch was at the +height of its popularity when most of the domestic porcelain and +decorative china, now rare and valuable, was being made. The best known +potters in Worcester, Derby, Bristol, Liverpool, and the Potteries made +punch bowls, some ornamented with their characteristic decorations; +others were specially emblematical, such, for instance, as the bowls +covered with masonic signs; some were nautical in design, and many were +enriched with coats of arms and crests. Several of the punch bowls +belonging to the old City Companies are on view in the Guildhall Museum, +and isolated specimens are seen to be in other places. + +Oriental china was at that time being imported into this country very +extensively, and some remarkably delicate bowls, contrasting with +Mason's strong ironstone, are obtainable. These bowls, ladles, and the +charming little egg-shaped boxes which formerly contained a nutmeg and a +tiny grater are household table furnishings of exceptional interest. It +may interest some to learn that punch, which came into vogue in the +seventeenth century, derived its name from a Hindustani word signifying +five, indicative of the five ingredients of which it was +composed--spirit, water, sugar, lemon, and spice. + + +Porringers and Cups. + +Although sterling silver and other materials from which drinking vessels +are usually made have been exhaustively dealt with in other volumes of +the "Chats" series, as table appointments drinking cups must be referred +to here. Caudle cups were in use in the sixteenth century, and +throughout the century that followed they were used along with +porringers, which differed from them only in that the mouths of the +porringers were wider and the sides straight. The caudle cup, sometimes +called a posset cup, is met with both without and with cover, and in +some instances it is accompanied by a stand or tray. Caudle or posset +was a drink consisting of milk curdled with wine, and in the days when +it was drunk few went to bed without a cup of smoking hot posset. Many +of the early cups were beautifully embossed and florally ornamented, +although others were quite plain, with the exception of an engraved +shield, on which was a coat of arms, crest, or monogram. Many of the +porringers which followed the earlier type were octagonal, and in some +instances twelve-sided. In the reign of William and Mary the rage for +Chinese figures and ornaments caused English silversmiths to decorate +porringers with similar designs. The style which prevailed the longest +was that known as "Queen Anne," much copied in modern replicas. Very +pleasing, too, are eighteenth-century miniature porringers. + +There is much to please in the work of the silversmith and potter, as +well as the glass blower, in the cups they fashioned; and the artist +admires the chased engraving or the rich colouring, and perchance the +etching and cutting of the cup. Some, however, show preference for the +earlier cups and drinking vessels of commoner materials, and for those +eccentricities of the table found in curious hunting cups, vessels which +had to be emptied at a draught, or to be drunk under the most difficult +conditions like the puzzle cups of Staffordshire make. The peg tankards +of ancient date, a very fine example originally belonging to the Abbey +of Glastonbury, afterwards in the possession of Lord Arundel of Wardour, +held two quarts, the pegs dividing its contents into half-pints +according to the Winchester standard. On that remarkable cup the twelve +Apostles were carved round the sides, and on the lid was the scene at +the Crucifixion. + +[Illustration: FIG. 21.--TWO WOODEN CUPS. + +FIG. 22.--WOODEN FLAGON, WITH COPPER BANDS. + +(_In the National Museum of Wales._)] + +[Illustration: FIGS. 23, 24.--COCOANUT CUPS (SILVER-MOUNTED). + +FIG. 25.--COCOANUT FLAGON.] + +It is said that the pegs were first ordered by Edgar, the Saxon king, to +prevent excessive drinking, the tankard being passed round, every man +being expected to drink down to the next peg. Heywood, in his +_Philocathonista_, says: "Of drinking cups, divers and sundry sorts we +have, some of elm, some of box, and some of maple and holly." According +to the quaint spelling of those days there were then in use in Merrie +England: "Mazers, noqqins, whiskins, piggins, cringes, ale-bowls, wassel +bowls, tankard and kames from a pottle to a pint and from a pint to a +gill." The leather cups and tankards or black jacks (see Chapter VIII) +were mostly used in country places by "shepheards and harvesters." A +writer in a work published in the early years of the nineteenth century +says: "Besides metal and wood and pottery we have cups of hornes of +beasts, of cocker nuts, of goords, of eggs of ostriches, and of the +shells of divers fishes." + +A simple cocoanut, mounted in silver and made into a cup, perhaps a +century or more ago, is by no means to be despised. Some are beautifully +polished and ornamented with incised work. Contemporary with the earlier +specimens are pots made of ostrich eggs, mounted in silver, regarded of +great value in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Some of the +university colleges possess fine examples, and there are many in the +hands of London silversmiths. Figs. 23 and 24 represent two cocoanut +cups with feet of silver, one engraved with the owner's initials, the +foot being decorated with bead ornament. Fig. 25 is a cocoanut mounted +as a flagon with handle of whalebone and rim and foot of silver. The +use of such cups seems to have been very generally distributed all over +the world, for there are many South American examples, as well as the +English varieties. The gourd, too, was used for similar purposes; the +Mexicans made such bowls and cups, finishing them off with silver mounts +and sometimes adding silver feet. There are French flasks made of small +gourds, sometimes scent flasks being made in the same way, not +infrequently decorated with incised inlays of coloured composition on a +black ground. Some of the English silversmiths engraved hunting scenes +on small flasks made of the rind of a gourd, choosing hunting scenes and +birds and familiar outdoor objects. + +In Figs. 21 and 21A are shown two curious old wood drinking cups, and +Fig. 22 represents a wooden jug bound with copper. + +Horn was a favourite material for cups, sometimes surmounted by +elaborate covers and feet of silver. One of the rarest drinking horns, +now in Queen's College, Oxford, was presented to the College by the +Queen of Edward III in 1340. Of later types there are beakers and +tumbler cups, the latter rounded at the base so that they were easily +upset, the idea being that they must be emptied at the first draught. +From these cups sprang the quaint hunting cups in porcelain, modelled in +the form of a hare's head, or like a fox, some of the scarcest being +evidently modelled for the fisherman's use, to take the form of a fish's +head. + +The very remarkable drinking cup shown in Fig. 27 is made of walnut; +the ridges, carved in deep relief, stand out boldly, each one being +carved, the letters forming a complete metaphor, to which is added the +name of its original owner, the inscription reading as follows:-- + + "TAKE . NOT . FROM . ME . + AL . MY . STOR . AXCP . YE . + FILL . ME . VEE . SVME . MOR . + FOR . AV . TO . BORROV . + AND . NEVER . TO . PAY . + I . CALL . THAT . + FOVLL . PLAY . + ION WATSON 1695." + + +Trays and Waiters. + +In olden time not very far from the dining table stood the cupboard or +buffet from which evolved the sideboard. On it were displayed the cups +and flagons and table appointments not actually in use. It is true the +servants carried the great dishes from the kitchen, and removed the +lesser vessels on trays and "waiters," and it is such trays, especially +those in silver and Sheffield plate used in the last century, which are +now valuable. The waiter or serving man or woman has been an essential +feature in domestic service from the earliest times, for the history of +society invariably records those who wait at table:-- + + "The waiters stand in ranks; the yeomen cry + 'Make room,' as if a duke were passing by." + SWIFT. + +It is an easy remove from the waiter to the tray or vessel on which the +waiters carried the things they served up to those on whom they waited. +The name "salver," commonly applied to a tray or waiter, seems to have +originated from the old custom of tasting meats before they were served, +to salve or save their employers from harm. Among the more valuable are +the trays or waiters of silver and Sheffield plate. Trays made of iron +and japanned after the fashion of Japanese metal lacquer wares, which +towards the close of the eighteenth century were so largely imported +into this country, are often neglected, yet many of them are truly +antiquarian and by no means unlovely. + +One of the chief seats of the industry was at Pontypool, but the +business drifted to Birmingham. It was when the japan wares, so called +from the attempt of the makers to copy the lacquers of Japan then much +imported, were being successfully made amidst surroundings then +exceedingly romantic in the little town singularly situated on a steep +cliff overhanging the Avon Llwyd, that dealers found trays, +breadbaskets, snuffer trays, knife trays, caddies, and urns much in +request. In Bishopsgate Street Without, in London, there is a noted wine +house known as the "Dirty Dick." This curious title was derived from the +owner of a famous hardware store who kept it, and was dubbed "Dirty +Dick" because of his untidy shop. The wild disorder of the establishment +gave rise to a popular ballad of which the following are two of the +first lines:-- + + "A curious hardware shop in general full + Of wares from Birmingham and Pontypool." + +In addition to japanned wares there are trays of paper pulp ornamented +with mother-o'-pearl and richly decorated with gold. + + +The Tea Table. + +The modern tea table presents a much less formal array of china and good +things than that of a generation or two back when high tea was an +important function, and the good wife of the household loaded her table +with many substantial dishes. The best china was taken from the +cupboard, and family heirlooms in silver were arrayed on either side of +the teapot. Needless to say the teapot was an indispensable adjunct, and +some of the teapots belonging to the old sets are massive and gorgeous, +rather than beautiful, although the earlier teapots made in this country +in the eighteenth century, a time when tea was expensive and a real +luxury, were quite small. + +There are many curiosities, too--such, for instance, as the Chinese +teapots of the Ming period, when the potters seem to have vied with one +another in producing grotesque forms, and from china clay fashioned +objects which typified their mythological beliefs. Some of these teapots +took the form of curious sea-horses represented as swimming in waves of +green and amidst seaweed. Some of these fabulous beasts are spotted over +with splashes of colour, and others have curious twig-like formations +upon their sides, said to denote pieces of coral and water plants from +the ocean. The teapot was at one time most frequently filled from the +pretty little oval copper or brass kettle on the hob, or from a swing +kettle on a stand on the table. The table kettle was generally heated by +a spirit lamp which kept the water boiling ready for use. Of later years +silver table appointments of early eighteenth-century make have become +very scarce, and the curio value of the larger pieces has steadily +risen. It would seem as if the maximum figure had been reached for +silver of that period, for at the sale of the Fitzhenry collection a +plain kettle and stand, an example of Ambrose Stevenson's work in 1717, +realized £697. + + +Cream Jugs. + +The cream jug included in the tea and coffee sets of silver or metal, +and in the tea china of which so many beautiful sets are still extant, +has almost an independent position in connection with table +appointments, for ever since tea drinking became general it was regarded +as a necessity, and was made in accord with the then prevailing styles. +It is almost the commonest collectable antique in this particular group. +In silver it was always hall-marked, and its date can, therefore, be +fixed. Briefly outlining the development of its form, it may be +mentioned that it was quite plain in the reign of Queen Anne, when tea +drinking came into fashion. When George I came to the throne it was +widened somewhat and made a little shorter. At that time the silver +cream jugs were hammered into shape out of a flat sheet, there being no +seam; after the body was formed a rim was added and a lip put on. There +was a deeper rim in the reign of George II, and then feet took the place +of rims. + +[Illustration: FIG. 26.--EARLY ENGLISH BRONZE EWER. + +(_In the British Museum._)] + +Gradually Chippendale carving and the shaped legs of the furniture then +being used were reflected even in the cream jug, the lip in those days +being hammered out of the body of the vessel with a graceful curve. Rims +again took the place of feet in the reign of George III, and the tall +legged cream jug came into vogue. The body was decorated with repousse +work or engraved, and the shape gradually changed until the familiar +helmet-shaped cream jug resulted. The helmet cream jugs were beautifully +engraved with ribbon and wreath decoration, and frequently there was a +beaded pattern round the rim and the handle. The same styles prevailed +both in Sheffield plate and in Britannia metal, often misnamed pewter. +The decoration on the china cream jugs was frequently floral, but in +those made in the leading potteries there was a distinct following of +the public style. + + +Sugar Tongs and Nippers. + +With the use of lump sugar late in the eighteenth century sugar tongs +were added to the table appointments, and their decoration and ornament +usually followed that of teaspoons. They were sometimes engraved with +the crests or initials of the owners, and occasionally, in the case of +wedding presents, with the initials of both the master and mistress of +the household, one being placed inside the sugar tongs and the other on +the arch outside. In connection with the cutting of lump sugar steel +sugar nippers were much used in the kitchen before lump sugar was bought +from the grocer ready cut up. These nippers, some of the earlier ones +being chased and engraved, have now passed into the region of household +curios. + + +Caddies. + +As the tea table would be incomplete without the beverage brewed from +tea-leaves it follows as a natural sequence that the housewife has +always required a storebox for her supply, and in some cases one in +which she could keep under lock and key more than one variety. When tea +was first imported into this country it was sent over from China in a +_kati_, a small wooden box holding about 1-1/3 lb.; hence the name +passed on to the more elaborate receptacles on the sideboard containing +the household supply. These boxes were mostly fashioned in accord with +the furniture, many having the well-known Sheraton shell design on the +lid, or on the front of the box. Some are square-sided, others tapered, +generally finished with beautiful little brass caddy balls as feet, and +often with brass ring handles and ornaments. The inside of the caddy was +divided into two compartments, usually boxes lined with lead or lead +paper, and frequently a central compartment for a sugar bowl was added. +In nearly all the better boxes there was provision for the silver caddy +spoon with which to apportion the accustomed supply. + + +Chelsea and Bow Cupids. + +Those curious little boy figures known as Chelsea and Bow Cupids are for +the most part classed with ornaments, but they more appropriately +belong to table appointments, for in olden time when the cloth had been +removed these curious little figures were placed upon the mahogany or +oaken board along with the dessert, as if to guard the fruit and the +wine. The Cupids are garlanded with flowers, baskets of which they have +in their hands--delightful little figures when genuine antiques. They +vary in size and are said to have been divided in the past as "small" +and "large" boys. + + +Nutcrackers. + +Many a famous joke has been cracked over the "walnuts and wine." It was +when the board was cleared of the viands that the nuts and fruit were +partaken of. The edible nuts mostly favoured before foreign supplies +came into the market were the hazel, walnut, chestnut, and the famous +Kent filberts. Although doubtless supplemented by any objects handy, the +primitive method of cracking nuts with the teeth was generally practised +by the common people. What more natural than for the early inventor to +see in the human head the "box" in which to place his mechanical device +and to give power and leverage by utilizing the legs of the man he had +carved in wood. In the Middle Ages some remarkable carvings were +produced, mostly working on the same lines as the earliest forms. In the +seventeenth century, when metal crackers came into vogue, pressure was +applied by means of a screw, and the contemporary wood crackers were +designed on that principle. Afterwards the older type of cracker was +revived, both in wood and metal; subsequently the simpler form at +present in use was adopted. + +Here and there in museums and among domestic relics odd pairs of these +old crackers are discovered. The interest in them, however, grows when +several early examples are placed side by side. There are a few +instances of specialized collections, and through the courtesy of Mr. +Charles Evans, of Nailsea Court, who possesses a unique collection of +all periods, we are able to illustrate a variety of forms. Fig. 31 +represents a very early pair of nutcrackers, probably made in the +fourteenth century; the one shown in Fig. 34 has the Elizabethan ruff +round the neck of the carved head; and Figs. 28, 29, and 30 represent +the screw period, Fig. 28 being an early example. One of the finest +pieces in the collection is Fig. 29, a cracker in the form of a hooded +monk; Fig. 30 being a charming bit of wood-carving in walnut wood, a +somewhat grotesque figure representing an old fiddler. Fig. 33 is a +curious cracker combining a useful pick almost in the form of the bill +of a bird, Fig. 32 being of similar date. The next group shows the +evolution from the metal screw to the more ordinary types, Figs. 36 and +38 being screw nutcrackers; 35, 37, and 39 being quaint examples of +early metal nutcrackers modelled on more modern form. Such curios are +extremely interesting, and whether exhibited as specimens of carving or +of metal work, or used as table ornaments combining utility and +antiquarian interest, they are well worth securing. + +[Illustration: FIG. 27.--INSCRIBED SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY WOOD DRINKING +CUP. + +(_In Taunton Castle Museum._)] + + +[Illustration: FIGS. 28-30.--EARLY CARVED WOOD NUTCRACKERS. + +(_In the collection of Mr. Charles Evans, of Nailsea Court._)] + + +Turned Woodware. + +Table appointments have afforded amateur wood-turners and carvers +opportunities of showing their skill. Even before the days of modern +lathes with eccentric chucks and other improvements, turners were very +clever in producing little articles for table use, and in their making +expended a wealth of skill and time. Among these were pepper boxes and +wooden salt cellars, and carved wooden spoons, especially salad servers, +which are even still made and delicately carved, the Swiss peasants +being famous for such work. One of the village occupations during winter +evenings in years gone by was to make wooden objects, although most of +their efforts were directed in other ways than table appointments (see +Chapter XIII, Fig. 85). + + +On the Sideboard. + +Not far removed from the dining table is the sideboard or buffet, so +important a piece of furniture in the dining hall, for on it were +formerly displayed table appointments and emblems of the feast. The +urn-shaped knife boxes which were so often placed on either side were +chiefly of mahogany, sometimes inlaid with satinwood and often with +those rare shell-like ornaments which became so popular in the days of +Chippendale and Sheraton. The compartments in which were placed the +table knives prevented either blades or handles from being rubbed. +Copper and metal urns were frequently conspicuous on the sideboard, +although many of the small tables so much treasured now as antiques in +the drawing-room were originally made for urns to stand upon. + +There are many beautiful curios of the home made of wood, among them +being such rare gems as wood screens and the frames of hand screens, +some of which screwed on to the ends of the mantelpieces with small +clamps. + +[Illustration: FIGS. 31-34.--MEDIÆVAL WOOD NUTCRACKERS.] + +[Illustration: FIGS. 35-39.--EARLY STEEL AND BRASS NUTCRACKERS. + +(_In the collection of Mr. Charles Evans, of Nailsea Court._)] + + + + +V + +THE KITCHEN + +[Illustration: FIG. 40.--TWO ANTIQUE WARMING PANS. + +(_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 41.--WELSH KITCHEN FIREPLACE. + +(_In the National Museum of Wales._)] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE KITCHEN + + The kitchen grate--Boilers and kettles--Grills and + gridirons--Cooking utensils--Warming pans. + + +It is in the kitchen and the pantry that domestic economy centres. The +very essence of home life is found in the preparation of suitable food +in which to satisfy human appetites. Whether the kitchen is furnished +with apparatus sufficient to cook for the inmates of a large +institution, or with the more modest appliances with which a chop or a +steak can be grilled or a small joint roasted in a gas oven, the basis +of cooking operations is the same, and the cook requires an outfit of +culinary utensils small or large, according to what she has been +accustomed to use or considers necessary for her immediate wants. In +olden time the kitchen was furnished with fewer accessories in +proportion to the meat consumed than at the present time, and the large +hanging caldron and the strong and heavy wrought or cast iron saucepan +on the fire, and the roasting spit and jack in front of it, went a long +way towards completing the outfit. The gradual advance and increase in +the furnishings of the kitchen have been the outcome of development and +progress in culinary art. Since the introduction of scientific cooking +and the establishment of schools of cookery, the hired cook and the +mistress who dons the apron and assumes the role of the economic +housewife have learned to appreciate the use of modern culinary +appliances, lighter in weight and convenient to handle. These differ +according to the purposes for which they are to be used. + +Hygienic conditions now regarded as essential have displaced many of the +older cooking pots which have been condemned as injurious to health. +Greater knowledge of the chemistry of cooking, and of the action of +acids upon metals, has enabled the scientific cook to differentiate +between the pots and pans to use according to the various foods +prepared. The beautifully finished light, handy, and convenient +porcelain-enamelled saucepans and stewpans and aluminium cooking pots +used on modern gas stoves and ranges, would have been just as unsuitable +on the open fires of the older grates as what are now regarded as the +curios of the kitchen would be deemed to be in modern culinary +operations. In almost every house there are to be found obsolete +utensils, some of which are valued on account of their great age, others +because of their unusual forms, and some because of the beauty of +workmanship and the costly materials of which they have been made. It is +when turning out the kitchen and storeroom on the occasion of periodical +cleanings that these old-world pots and pans come to light; at such +times the collector may be able to secure scarce specimens and rescue +them from oblivion. + +[Illustration: FIG. 42.--MECHANICAL ROASTING JACKS. + +(_In the collection of Mr. Charles Wayte._)] + +It is not always easy to realize what the old kitchen was like when +these vessels were in use, although in out-of-the-way places kitchens +may occasionally be discovered in which but little change has been made. +This is especially so in some of the Welsh villages, and in order that +visitors may see what such kitchens are like a Welsh cottage fireplace +showing the objects which might commonly have been found there a century +ago has been reconstructed in the National Museum of Wales. This we are +able to reproduce in Fig. 41 by the courtesy of the Director. The grate +came from Llansantffraid, and was made by a local blacksmith; the spit +and its bearers came from Glamorgan; the brass pot came from Barry, and +the dog wheel (referred to on p. 130) from Haverfordwest; most of the +minor accessories came from different parts of North Wales. + + +The Kitchen Grate. + +The kitchen grate has evolved from the open fire; at first in the centre +of the room, then removed for convenience to the side or end in front of +which joints of meats were roasted on a spit in olden time. The spit, at +first quite primitive, was improved upon by local smiths, until quite +intricate arrangements provided the desired revolutions, and turned the +meat round and round until it was properly cooked. In the thirteenth +century the "bellows blower" was an officer in the Royal kitchen, his +duty being to see that the soup on the fire was neither burnt nor +smoked. In course of time the bellows blower in lesser households became +a useful kitchen boy, turning the spit by hand. It would seem, however, +as if in quite early days efforts were made to economize labour in the +kitchen, and turn the spit by mechanical contrivances. + +In roasting meat sliding prongs held the joint in place, a cage or +basket being used for roasting poultry. This contrivance, first turned +by hand, was afterwards accelerated and made more regular by the +mechanical contrivances just referred to. These appear to have been of +three different types. There was the clock jack, two splendid specimens +of which are illustrated in Fig. 42, types becoming exceedingly rare. +Those illustrated were recently in the possession of Mr. Charles Wayte, +of Edenbridge, an enthusiastic discoverer of antiquarian metal work in +out-of-the-way places in Sussex and Kent. Earlier still there was the +smoke jack or rotary fan fixed in the chimney, operated by an +up-draught, pulleys and cords being attached to the end of the spit. The +third method referred to involved the shifting of manual labour from man +to his domestic beast, for the faithful hound was pressed into the +service of the cook. The dog worked in a cage, operating a wheel or drum +which in its turn revolved the turnspit. Such turnspits seem to have had +a lingering existence, and were occasionally heard of in North Wales +late in the nineteenth century. + +[Illustration: GRIDIRONS SHOWING FOREIGN INFLUENCE IN DESIGN: FIG. 43, +ITALIAN; FIG. 44, FLEMISH; FIG. 45, DUTCH; FIG. 46, GERMAN.] + +Roasting before the fire lingered on long after the old-fashioned iron +jacks and spits had ceased to be the common method of cooking meat. The +meat hastener and the Dutch oven conserved and radiated the heat, the +joint turning slowly by the clockwork mechanism of the improved brass +bottle jack. As the size of the fireplace narrowed and kitchens were +built smaller roasting in ovens became popular; the cooker of to-day +with its hot-plates, grills, and steam chests--whether heated by coal, +gas, or electricity--presents a remarkable contrast to the old open fire +grate. + +It will readily be understood that the necessary basting of meat +roasting before the fire involved the use of ladles and other utensils +before the modern cooking appliances were invented. Most of the old +vessels were strong and lasting, and the materials employed in their +construction were iron, copper, and brass. In Fig. 49 we show a +selection of fat boats and hammered iron grease pans (in the centre of +the plate is an old mothering-iron from Sussex) typical of the vessels +used in open fire roasting. To these may be added basting spoons and +skimmers, in many places called "skummers." + + +Boilers and Kettles. + +It is probable that the cooking pot over the fire has been used side by +side with roasting apparatus from the earliest times, although no doubt +vessels would be required for boiling foods before roasting, in that +discoveries show that the earliest method of roasting a piece of meat or +a small animal was to encase it in clay and then expose it to the fire. +The clay crust could then be broken and would, of course, have been +destroyed. + +No doubt the crock antedated the bronze pot, which was at first made of +metal plates hammered and beaten into shape, and then riveted together. +This method was followed by the craft of the founder, who cast vessels +after the same model first in bronze and then in iron. The cooking pot +was indispensable when the food of the common people was chiefly such as +necessitated a vessel containing liquid; the name of this ancient vessel +has furnished us with many apt quotations, and it is still the pot so +many find difficult to keep boiling. + +There have been many contrivances by which to suspend the pot over the +fire. Years ago the usual method of suspension was from a beam of wood +or a bar of iron placed across the chimney opening--the name by which +the bar was known in the North of England was a "gallybawk." Simple +contrivances of metal followed, the suspension hooks and chains leading +to improved cranes with rack and loop handles. + +No doubt many have noticed the apparent indiscriminate use of the term +"kettle"; the tea kettle as we understand it to-day is a modern +invention. The old kettle was a boiling pot with a bail handle, its +modern survivor being the three-legged kettle of the gipsies, and the +boiling pot or fish kettle of the modern household. Associated with the +early use of tea kettles slung over a fire is the now scarce lazy-back +or tilter, at one time common in the West of England and in South Wales. + +[Illustration: FIGS. 47, 48.--TWO WOODEN FOOD BOXES. + +(_In the Cardiff Museum._)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 49.--A COLLECTION OF IRON FAT BOATS AND GREASE +PANS.] + +In "Chats on Old Copper and Brass" some very interesting illustrations +of old copper and brass saucepans, skillets, and pipkins are given. The +skillet has survived for several centuries. Those made in the +seventeenth century were frequently inscribed with various religious and +sentimental legends; one in the National Museum of Wales is inscribed +"LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR." Frying pans have been in common use for a great +number of years and are still daily requisitioned. Bakestones, on which +cakes were formerly baked, are, however, becoming obsolete. They were +called girdle plates in the North of England, and bakestones in Wales +and elsewhere. + + +Grills and Gridirons. + +The gridiron or "griddle" was an appliance used extensively all over the +Continent of Europe from the sixteenth century onward. In this country +it was formerly made by the village blacksmith, and, like the iron +stool, kitchen fender, and other iron and brass kitchen utensils and +furnishings, was often made quite decorative. It would appear as if the +smith filled up his spare moments in designing intricate patterns with +which to decorate the grid. Some of the sixteenth and seventeenth-century +European gridirons were quite elaborate, serving the double purpose of +ornament and use, for when finished with for cooking purposes they were +carefully cleaned and polished and hung up over the kitchen mantelpiece. +Some of the characteristic types met with are shown in the accompanying +illustrations. In Fig. 43 is seen the light and lacy Italian style; in +Fig. 44 the openwork design of the Flemish; a formal Dutch pattern being +illustrated in Fig. 45; whereas the heavy German floreated type is +shown in Fig. 46. Contrasting with these Continental types the English +gridiron was strong and serviceable, and essentially a grid or grill, +the smith putting his best work in the handle rather than the grid. + + +Cooking Utensils. + +Besides pots and pans there are many cooking utensils which may now be +reckoned among the domestic curios. There are, of course, ewers and +basins, water-carrying and retaining vessels, and colanders of brass and +earthenware, strainers and graters which have been used from time to +time in the kitchen. Sometimes the metal worker appears to have gone out +of the way to produce curious forms not always the most convenient for +the purposes for which they were made--such, for instance, as the +aquamaniles, several of which may be seen in the British Museum (see +Fig. 26). + +[Illustration: FIG. 50.--WOODEN COFFEE CRUSHERS AND PESTLES AND MORTAR.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 51.--APPLE SCOOPS OF BONE.] + +Some of the minor kitchen utensils include flesh hooks and forks and +carving knives. There are spoons of every kind made in all metals, some +of the earlier examples being of brass and latten. In this connection +also may be mentioned ladles, fish slicers, and scoops. There are also +many curious little pastrycooks' knives, and knives used for cutting +vegetables and preparing a repast in olden time, many of them quite +decorative, even the common pastry-wheel frequently being carved. It was +at one time customary to expend much skill in decorating apple scoops, +those shown in Fig. 51 being very choice specimens in the National +Museum of Wales, in Cardiff. The one on the left hand of the picture is +made of bone, and is inlaid with a small brass name-plate; that on the +right-hand side is of ivory delicately turned, the scoop being +exceedingly thin; and those in the centre are all home-made out of the +metacarpal bones of the sheep, being slightly ornamented with cut +X-shaped lines and hatchings. In the same museum there are some +remarkably interesting coffee crushers and mortars and pestles, several +of these being illustrated in Fig. 50. In Fig. 53 we show a +representative selection reminiscent of the days when wooden spoons and +wooden platters were in common use. The trencher takes its name from +_tranche_, the old name of the platter which replaced the piece of bread +on which it was formerly customary to serve up meat; like the bread, it +was at first square. The minor kitchen accessories formerly in constant +use included many objects of wood, such as the charming little nutmeg +mills of turned rosewood, some of which are to be seen in the British +Museum. There are also antique pasteboards and rolling-pins for rolling +shortbread, pot stirrers of wood, and other utensils such as sand +glasses. + +In Figs. 47 and 48 we illustrate two wooden food boxes, such as were +formerly used to carry food to men working in the field. They are now +deposited with other curios in the Cardiff Museum, where also may be +seen some little wooden piggins, and bowls used for porridge; the piggin +was an ancient vessel often mentioned in mediæval days (see Fig. 52). + + +Warming Pans. + +There are some household appointments which, like some of the brass +skimmers, platters, engraved foot and hand warmers, chestnut roasters, +and the like, have always served the double purpose of use and ornament. +Among these are warming pans which in modern days have been brought out +of their hiding-places, repolished, and hung up in conspicuous places by +the fireside. In the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as some of the +provincial museums, there are many very fine examples, those having +dates and names upon them being especially valued. As an instance of an +exceptional specimen in the Victoria and Albert Museum we may mention +one on which there is an engraving of reindeer, ducally gorged, the +inscription upon this pan reading: "THE EARL OF ESSEX. HIS ARMES. 1630." +Another elaborate warming pan is engraved with figures of a cavalier and +a lady, richly embellished with peacocks and flowers. The pan is of +copper, but the handle is of wrought iron with brass ornamental mounts. +Some pans have wooden handles, either walnut or oak, some of the more +modern being ebonized (see Fig. 40). + +This brief review of kitchen utensils by no means exhausts the varieties +of old metal work and other curios which may still be found in kitchens. +There appears to be no end to the minor varieties in form and +decoration. This is natural when we remember that years ago kitchen +utensils were not made in quantities after the same pattern as they are +nowadays. They were the product of the local maker, the smith and the +village woodworker being frequently called upon to supply new kitchen +utensils, and it would appear that they did their best to make their +work successful in that the vessels they fashioned were lasting, and +during their use contributed in no small degree towards the +ornamentation of the home. + +[Illustration: FIG. 52.--WOODEN PIGGINS AND PORRIDGE BOWL.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 53.--WOODEN PLATTER, BOWL, AND SPOONS. + +(_In the National Museum of Wales._)] + + + + +VI + +HOME ORNAMENTS + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HOME ORNAMENTS + + Mantelpiece ornaments--Vases--Derbyshire spars--Jade or spleen + stone--Wood carvings--Old gilt. + + +We are apt to wonder sometimes what it is that makes the house homelike, +and why there are such strong attachments to the old home. Surely it is +the familiar aspect of the furnishings, rather than the bricks and +mortar, that makes the old home so dear! To the original owners there +was an individuality about every piece, although to the collector the +same characteristics of well-known objects tell that in days gone by the +cabinet-maker followed stereotyped lines, and there were but few who +moved out of the regular ruts and made distinctive designs in home +ornaments and sundry furnishings. It is noteworthy, however, that +however much alike in furniture no two houses were alike in their +ornamental surroundings. The pictures and portraits on the walls have +peculiarities recognized and understood by those who have dwelt for many +years among them. Familiar table appointments, however humble, have a +homelike look, and there are odd bits of old china in the cabinet and +silver or pewter on the sideboard which distinguish one house from +another; and it has ever been so. Chimney ornaments, which may be quite +commonplace, have well-known characteristics which cannot be duplicated. +It is undoubtedly among the home ornaments that the tenderest thoughts +linger, and it is the trinkets of comparatively little value to an +outsider that members of the family store when the old home is broken +up. There are such ornaments in every household; and whenever there is a +sale there are those who gladly buy them because of their associations +with those by whom they were owned and valued. The collector rarely +gathers them on sentimental grounds, securing them as curious specimens +or characteristic styles wanting in his collection. Some specialize on +old china cups and saucers; others on rare porcelain figures; some on +the beautiful gilt and ormolu knick-knacks which looked so well on the +early Victorian drawing-room table, and others prefer odds and ends, +some of which are mentioned in the following paragraphs. It is, perhaps, +from the old ornaments of the home that we learn most about the true +home-life lived in former years. Wood carvers, silversmiths, leather +workers, glass blowers and potters fashioned their ornamental things +after the living models they saw about them, in the days in which they +worked. Thus in the groups of Staffordshire figures, now much sought +after, we learn something of the story of life in the Potteries in the +closing years of the nineteenth century. The story is recorded in the +earthenware "landlord and landlady," "lovers arm in arm," and rustic +cottages with which collectors are familiar. + +[Illustration: FIG. 54.--BRASS CHIMNEY ORNAMENT (ONE OF A PAIR).] + + +Mantelpiece Ornaments. + +There are many quaint brass chimney ornaments which were popular in many +parts of England fifty to sixty years ago much sought after nowadays. +They were of polished brass, usually in pairs, and when several were +arranged on a mantelpiece they presented a bright array. The one +illustrated in Fig. 54 is of the type much favoured in country +districts. It represents a shepherd with his crook, the companion brass +being a shepherdess. On the sea-coast fishermen were much fancied, and +in mining districts the miner with his pick and other industrial models +were extensively sold. These were varied with birds and animals and +miniature replicas of household furniture. The older ones are not very +common, and therefore have been much copied, for of these goods there +are many modern replicas. + + +Vases. + +Ornamental vases have varied much in form, until a collection seems to +cover every style of art. Thus Egyptian and Roman influence is seen in +some; others of French origin, dating before the Empire period, are a +combination of French art with Egyptian ornament, brought out during the +Directoire, when after the Battle of the Pyramids French artists +introduced the sphinx and other Egyptian ornaments into their art +designs. During the Empire period, the style that is said to consist of +a blending of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian prevailed. Many of the +continental countries have been noted for glass ornaments--especially +vases. The beautiful Venetian glass is rich in colour, and the vases are +varied and graceful in form, especially those of ewer-like shape. +Bohemia has always been a noted centre of the glass industry. Then in +our own country some beautiful vases have been produced. + +There are other materials which are met with in curiously shaped vases. +At one time the beautiful Derbyshire spars were much used. There are +biscuit china and Parian vases, and many exquisite vases of silver and +other metals. Much might be written of the Oriental vases and enamels, +especially of the artistic treasures of Old Japan and China, from whence +so much of our early vases and beautiful porcelain came. Of the products +of Chelsea and Bow, of Coalbrookdale and Derby, and of Bristol and +Nantgrw, writers and collectors of rare ceramics have had much to record +of the many-shaped vases with which the homes of the middle classes were +made beautiful in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These +are preserved with care, but many of the vases produced by the pioneers +of the potting industry in this country serve their original purpose +still, and glass and china and rare Wedgwood jasper ware ornament the +home of the twentieth-century reader of the "Chats" series, as they did +the "withdrawing" rooms of their original owners in the eighteenth +century. + +[Illustration: FIG. 55.--BLACK AND GOLD DERBYSHIRE MARBLE VASE. + +(_In the Author's collection._)] + + +Derbyshire Spars. + +The Derbyshire spars and inlaid marbles just referred to were very +popular, some exceedingly ornamental and decorative pieces being +produced. Others were stiff and formal, and can scarcely be regarded as +beautiful. The variety of marbles quarried in Derbyshire gave the artist +ample opportunity of displaying taste in colour. The most beautiful are +those made of fluor-spar, the celebrated Blue John Mine providing the +most beautiful specimens. The purple shades present delightful tints, +and some of the old workers in Derbyshire mosaics were exceptionally +fortunate in their schemes of arrangement of the tiny pieces they inlaid +so carefully. The marble workers in this country have never been able to +produce those beautiful effects for which the Florentine school of +artists was famous, although it has been claimed by some that the +artists of the Peak produced in their larger works some equally as +effective. Among old household ornaments small Roman mosaics, so called, +are often met with. At one time the Florentine artists used gems and +real stones, whereas the Romans chiefly employed glass. Many will be +familiar with the Vatican pigeons and the fountain so frequently copied. +It is said that the Derbyshire workers in mosaic excelled themselves in +the production of a beautifully inlaid vase covered with flowers, +foliage, and birds, prepared for the late Queen Victoria, in 1842. Half +a century ago fancy shops were filled with the products of the +Derbyshire mines, but most of the best pieces are now among household +curios. The wide-topped vase shown in Fig. 55 is made from Derbyshire +black and gold marble, and was produced in Matlock about sixty years +ago. It may be interesting to collectors to mention that although the +Romans are believed to have worked the Blue John mines, it was not until +1770 that the lovely purple spar was rediscovered in the Hope Valley, a +workman passing through the Winnats being attracted by the pieces of +spar he saw lying about, eventually bringing them under the notice of +the owner of a Rotherham marble works. Besides the smaller objects there +are the larger tables, worked in the same materials, some of which are +sometimes met with second-hand for quite trifling sums. + + +Jade or Spleen Stone. + +Among the rarer curios of the home are those wonderful ornaments cut and +carved out of jade, a beautiful stone which has been so highly prized by +the Chinese. Its special value lies in the exquisite tints of the +different hues. These marvellously varied stones were formerly quarried +from the Kuen-Kask Valley, where jade or yu-stone runs in +different-coloured veins through the rocks. It is said that jade in the +form of spleen stone first came to Europe from America. It is found +extensively in Mexico, and also in Burma, but the chief interest centres +in the grotesque and cleverly carved Chinese curios. The beauty and +value of these pieces lies not so much in their forms as in their +marvellous tints and the clever way in which the Chinese workmen, in +fashioning grotesque forms, have cut away practically all the colour +of certain intruding shades, leaving the figures in some brilliant hue +of green, red, or pink, standing out upon a base of some other shade. +The curiously smoked mutton-fat colour is one of the rarest, but to the +amateur the more transparent and brilliant tints possess the greatest +beauty. + +[Illustration: FIG. 56.--TEMPLE GUARDIAN, CARVED FROM THE GNARLED ROOT +OF A TREE. + +(_In the Author's collection._)] + +True jade, or nephrite, is a native silicate of calcium and magnesium, +and does not exhibit either crystalline form or distinct cleavage. In +addition to the "mutton-fat" shade spoken so highly of there are lovely +shades in green, emerald, moss, tea and sea green, violet and yellow, +and white and camphor; but the rarest of all combinations is violet, +mutton-fat, and emerald green. + + +Wood Carvings. + +Many of the more decorative household ornaments are made of wood. To cut +down a tree or to whittle a stick has been the favourite occupation of +men of all ages, and the possession of a pocket-knife the ambition of +the schoolboy from time immemorial. Something to cut keeps him out of +mischief and calls forth any ingenuity he may have. Some of the most +wonderful curios have been cut by hand, fashioned with skill. Some are +remarkably realistic in their forms, faithful copies of living +originals, or of objects of still greater antiquity with which the wood +carver has been familiar. Carvers have sometimes allowed themselves to +run wild in their imaginations as they have cut and shaped a block of +wood, giving it the most fantastic form, picturing myths and fables in a +wonderfully realistic way. There seems to be no end to the variety of +wooden ornament. The carver has found a place in architectural design, +too, many old houses being enriched with his handiwork. In the days when +walls were panelled with oak, the carver and the wood worker delighted +in cutting deep and intricate mouldings and in giving that delightful +linen fold to the panels which would otherwise have been plain. That was +the ambition of the household decorator of Elizabethan days. Tudor beams +were cut and carved and quaint mottoes engraved upon them. The old oak +settles--sometimes portable, at others fixtures--were carved all over, +and the fronts of oak chests were often made into pictures of wood. They +told the tale of the family tree by the coats of arms and the shields +emblazoned by the cutter of wood, sometimes being enriched with colour; +at others the picture forms were created by inlaying and superadding +fretwork. There were intricate carvings of the Sheraton and Chippendale +periods, and there were the wonderful floral sprays, cherubs, and other +ornaments so cunningly wrought by Grinling Gibbons and his followers. +Wooden ornament in those days took the form of over-doors, and wreaths +running down the lintels; and massive mantelpieces of oak were carved +deeply. There were vases of wood full of flowers cut from the same +material standing on wooden pedestals. The floral sprays, it is said, +were in some cases so delicately cut that they shook like natural +flowers when any one crossed a room or a post-chaise rumbled along the +street. Some remarkable picture frames were cut and carved by amateurs, +corresponding well with the handiwork of the needlewoman they +enshrined. The cutting and carving of banner screens was a work of art, +and many times a labour of love. + +[Illustration: FIG. 57.--CARVED PLAQUE STAND.] + +There are quaint relics of other countries in wood carving among the +curios of the home. Some remarkable pieces of carved cherry-trees have +been brought over from Japan, the black trunk or root of the tree being +turned into a grinning demon, similar to the one illustrated in Fig. 56, +which resembles the "temple guardian." Others have been fashioned like +ancient idols or apes, many being an intermixture of different-coloured +woods, varying from almost red-brown to black, throwing up the carving +in relief. The Oriental was a clever wood carver, and with his primitive +tools he cut and fashioned a piece of wood according to his own sweet +will, evolving from it intricate works of art in wood. Perhaps the most +remarkable examples of the wood-worker's skill are those tiny miniatures +of which there is such a splendid collection in the British Museum, +notably the almost microscopic reliquaries. The Japanese and Chinese +have shown remarkable skill in carvings, and especially in the way they +have set off china plates and bowls intended as ornamental objects; a +truly magnificent example of such work is shown in Fig. 57. + + +Old Gilt. + +The highly decorative work known as old gilt, very fashionable in the +early Victorian drawing-room, has quite recently been hunted up, and +many pieces have been restored to positions of honour. The gilt, +so-called, was in reality eighteen-carat gold overlaid upon soft brass +by a process not now practised. Delightfully decorative trinket stands, +card trays, and little baskets were made in this way; and as they were +afterwards coated over with a transparent varnish, they have preserved +their colour; indeed, when found black with age, after carefully washing +in soap and water, they frequently come out bright and untarnished. Then +if brushed over with white of egg or some transparent white varnish they +will keep their colour for many years to come. These decorative +ornaments, often perforated as well as embossed, were frequently +enriched with imitation jewels. Those shown in Fig. 61 are typical of +the style of ornament referred to. Sometimes scent satchets and jewelled +caskets are found fitted with quaint reels for sewing silk and curious +needle holders. The more elaborate pieces are often ornamented with +floral sprays made of porcelain; some of the baskets filled with coral +and seaweed have curiously made little birds and butterflies, many of +them being genuine Chelsea. Others are the framework for holding Bow +figures or painted plaques. This Victorian gilt is at present not +over-scarce, and as it is not as yet much in demand collectors have an +exceptional opportunity of securing interesting specimens at moderate +cost. + + +Old Ivories. + +Much might be written about old ivories. Ivory has been a much-valued +material for ornamental decoration from quite early times. In almost +every home there are curios and pieces of furniture in which ivory +has either been overlaid or inserted as panels. At one time it was much +used for overlays, and in very thin plates made up into all kinds of +decorative models. + +[Illustration: FIGS. 58, 59.--MINIATURE COPPER AND SILVER KETTLES. + +FIG. 60.--MINIATURE IVORY COFFEE BOILER.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 61.--TWO OLD-GILT JEWELLED ORNAMENTS.] + +There are carved tusks from Africa and India, and quaint native curios +made of ivory cunningly wrought. It is from the East that we receive so +many beautiful curios, and especially so from India, China, and Japan. +The three remarkably handsome ivories illustrated in Fig. 62 will serve +to illustrate the beautiful and oftentimes costly curios found in so +many homes. + + +Miniature Antiques. + +Some of the most pleasing little antiques are silver models of +children's toys. The original models made contemporary with the +furniture or household gods they purport to represent were frequently +the gifts of godparents, and many are most elaborate in their designs, +every detail found in the larger originals being faithfully reproduced. +Some of these little silver toys, with which probably children were +seldom allowed to play, represented common objects outside the home, +such as the dovecote in the garden, the travelling coach with its +prancing steeds, the pack-horse ascending the slope towards a bridge +over a stream, in some instances objects of husbandry and agriculture, +being given to children familiar with the country. + +Another favourite type of model curio is found in the remarkably tiny +objects workmen sometimes prided themselves upon making--such curios, +for instance, as the silver and copper kettles and coffee pot shown in +Figs. 58, 59, and 60. The larger specimen (drawn larger than the +original) was made from a copper farthing, the smaller kettles being +hammered out of threepenny-pieces; the coffee pot is of ivory--a +charming model. + +There are a few sundries which should not be overlooked when collecting +curious things reminiscent of home-life as it once was. Among these are +the glass pictures once so much prized by well-to-do folk, now valued +only by the collector of such things. These were really "prints from +prints." The method of their preparation was most inartistic, although +it was effectual. A piece of glass was coated with varnish, the print +was then placed upon the varnish, and when dry and quite hard the paper +was washed off, leaving a "print" upon the prepared surface, which was +then painted over at the back, the picture thus being made complete. + +Much store was formerly set by the little plaques and medallions which, +with silhouettes, hung upon the walls. Among the gems of such ornaments +were the exquisite tablets and cameos made by Josiah Wedgwood, whose +beautiful vases and miniature bottles, as well as tea-sets in the same +wares, were so much admired. + +[Illustration: FIG. 62.--THREE FINE OLD IVORIES.] + + + + +VII + +GLASS AND ENAMELS + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GLASS AND ENAMELS + + Waterford, Bristol, and Nailsea--Ornaments of glass--Enamels on + metal. + + +Glass is used in every home. It is seen in its ornamental forms, and is +necessary in almost every department. In kitchen and pantry there are +dishes and tumblers and wine glasses and decanters ready for use. Among +these there are often found old glasses--that is, glass vessels which +from their rarity or age have attained a curio value; indeed, many +housewives are unaware that their kitchen cupboard contains what would +be valued as interesting specimens gladly purchased by collectors of +glass. Many of the old tumblers are beautifully engraved, often having +floral ornament and dainty rustic scenes. They are now and then +commemorative of events which the glass maker has recorded with his +graving tool, and sometimes they have been prepared to catch the passing +fancy. The styles of table glass have changed, and their shapes and +sizes have altered according to the popular custom of imbibing certain +liquors. + +When punch ceased to be the customary drink, and lesser quantities of +ale were consumed, punch bowls and tankards were less in request. Their +places were taken by wine glasses of more delicate forms, and charming +tallboys and crinkled vessels of glass took the place of the older mugs +and pewter cups. The glasses used in proffering and drinking toasts have +changed much during the last century, and the "fiat" glasses of the +Jacobite period, and those curious glasses with portraits of the Old +Pretender and the Young Pretender upon them, are curios only, for they +are no longer needed, neither is the toast of "The King" drunk "over the +water." Spirit glasses and decanters have altered in form, but among +those which have survived and are still sound are some rare examples of +cutting, made in the days when the glass cutter worked with primitive +tools, and such methods as the sand blast, chemical etching, and some of +the newer processes were unknown. + + +Waterford, Bristol, and Nailsea. + +Among table sundries are glass salts and cruets; the latter, however, +have been modernized and reduced in size, and the bottles and curiously +shaped oil and vinegar cruets of a hundred or more years ago look quaint +when compared with those of the present day. Even the flower vases which +formerly adorned the table, and the more decorative dishes used for +fancy sweetmeats and confections, have changed, leaving in the process +many of the older pieces, relegated to the store-cupboard, where disused +glass so often remains until in due time it is rescued from oblivion by +the collector of household curios. Among the eighteenth-century cut +glass jugs and trifle bowls are many beautiful vessels, for the making +of which certain districts from time to time became famous. The old +Waterford glass is especially noteworthy, and as a speculation, apart +from the interest it possesses for collectors, is worth securing. +Bristol glass to the uninitiated appears to be a misnomer, in that the +beautiful white milk-like surface upon which so many exquisite floral +designs have been painted looks more like egg-shell porcelain, but when +held up to the light is found to be of glass-like nature, pellucid +although semi-opaque. + +Nailsea glass has many peculiar characteristics about it, notably the +curiously introduced waved and twisted lines in colours. Many objects +which were essentially curios, their utilitarian purposes having always +been secondary, were made at Nailsea. There are gigantic models of +tobacco pipes, formerly hung up against the walls as ornaments. As +fitting companions to the pipes were walking-sticks of glass, some very +remarkable designs which might at one time have been carried by the +gallants of that day. They were often filled with sweetmeats and +comfits, ornamented with bows of ribbon, and presented to ladies of +their choice by devoted swains. A few of those curious sticks or +shepherd's crooks, as they were called, are to be seen in most +representative museum collections. The so-called rolling-pins of glass, +made at Sunderland as well as at Nailsea and Bristol, were known as +sailors' love tokens, and are referred to more fully in Chapter XIII. In +the Taunton Castle Museum there are some interesting specimens of old +glass, notably one of the very rare dark bottle-glass linen smoothers +which came from South Petherton. Such smoothers were at one time +favoured in the kitchen laundry in the days when servant-maids excelled +in getting up linen, and prided themselves on the beautiful gloss they +were able to impart--in the days before public laundries with their +modern glossing machines were instituted. + +Some of our readers may have seen the curious glass tubes, one yard in +length, into which ale was poured in the days when it was considered a +desirable attainment to be able to drink at one draught a "yard of ale." + +Of the larger vessels such as wine bottles, the chief collectable +feature about them is the old glass-bottle-makers' stamps, very +frequently found on fragments of bottles, such stamps often turning up +among the oddments of kitchen drawers which have probably been +undisturbed for many years. To collect bottle stamps is certainly an +uncommon hobby, but one that is not altogether devoid of interest. + + +Ornaments of Glass. + +Of household ornaments in glass there appears to be no end. There are +the glass Venetian vases and ewers, beautiful and graceful in form, +richly ornamented in gold; and there are the old English and French +vases, the colouring of which is not always in accord with modern taste. +Cut glass, in whatever form it is met with, is appreciated, in that the +workmanship involving so much studious labour is recognized. Continental +glass has at all periods been imported into this country, and especially +so Bohemian glass, of which there are decanters of ruby, claret, +blue, and other rich colours; some remarkable effects have been produced +upon red glass by adding tinted colours and white decoration +interspersed with gold. Glass lustres have acquired an antiquarian +value, and chandeliers and mantelpiece lustre candlesticks are sought +after by the collector, who sometimes finds interspersed with cut glass +lustre pretty coloured china droppers. + +[Illustration: FIG. 63.--BATTERSEA ENAMELS.] + + +Pictorial Art in Glass. + +Stained-glass windows are associated with ecclesiastical edifices. Old +English houses, however, not infrequently contain armorial panels, coats +of arms in leaden frames, and curious little pictures in colours which +can be hung against modern windows where the light will throw up the +rich colouring of the old-time painters. Little patches of colour, too, +were often introduced in otherwise plain diamond-shaped lattice panes. + +There are glass pictures, so-called, oftentimes consisting of coloured +prints pasted on one side of the glass, a softened effect being produced +by the glass through which they were seen; but they must be +distinguished from the more costly paintings _on_ glass sometimes met +with. + +In many an old house the glass shade with its contents so inartistic, +although removed from its place of honour on the parlour table, found a +niche where it is preserved. Under such shades were preserved wool-work +baskets filled with artificial flowers, among which were often small +porcelain figures, butterflies and birds. Sometimes a Parian vase has +been filled with wax flowers, the making of which was a favourite +pastime half a century ago. The dried plant called "honesty" was +frequently covered with a glass shade. Glass ships were exceedingly +popular in seaport towns, and little miniature replicas of household +furniture in glass are met with; indeed, there seems to have been no +limit to the fancies and freaks of the glass blower, who has at +different periods provided the present-day collector with curious, if +very breakable, curios. + + +Enamels on Metal. + +The art of enamelling on metal has been practised from very early times. +In its earlier forms it was chiefly an art applied to jewellery and the +ornamentation of ecclesiastical metal work. In time, however, it was +applied as a convenient method of decorating utilitarian household +articles such as fire-dogs and candlesticks. Those who frequent the more +important museums often associate enamels with the costly and rare +enamels of Limoges, and the choice bits of Italian enamels seen in the +cases of metals where the most valuable curios are gathered together. +Such vessels as those marvellous effects produced by the enamellers of +Limoges are indeed rarely found among household curios; it is well, +however, to note that the processes by which those effects were produced +changed as time went on. The earlier translucent enamel of the Italian +artists was laid over an incised metal ground, the design previously +prepared showing through. In the later Limoges enamels the surface with +which the copper base was overlaid was painted, very much in the same +way as the miniature painters on enamels operated in after-years. + +The process of covering metal with enamels made of a species of glass is +very ancient, but the basis of all enamels is the application of fusible +colourless silicate or glass in pattern or design, mixed with metallic +oxides, the prepared surface being afterwards fired until the enamel +adheres firmly to the copper or other metal. The processes varied, but +the firing or fusing was the same throughout. The name "enamel" is +traceable to the French word _enail_ and the Italian _smalto_, both +having the same root as the Anglo-Saxon word "smelt." The enamels of +China and Japan so extensively imported into this country of late years +are chiefly made by filling cloisons or cells formed of fine metal wires +or plates with coloured enamels and then firing them. As the collector +advances in his appreciation of the old craftsmen, he soon recognizes +the difference between the antiques sent over by Oriental merchants and +the modern works made on present-day commercial lines, and not the work +of men whose time was deemed of small account if they acquired notoriety +for the beauty of their work. + +The household enamels of English make consist chiefly of those beautiful +little boxes, trinkets, and domestic objects made at Battersea and +Bilston in the eighteenth century. The enamels used for the ground were +tinted rose, blue, and other shades, and ornamented with painted +pictures and mottoes. A very fine group of Battersea patch boxes is +shown in Fig. 63. + + + + +VIII + +LEATHER AND HORN + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LEATHER AND HORN + + Spanish leather--"Cuir boulli" work--Tapestry and + upholstery--Leather bottles and drinking vessels--Leather + curios--Shoes--Horn work. + + +That "there is nothing like leather" has been believed by people of all +ages, and in many countries the general belief has been put into +practice, for many indeed are the uses to which leather has been put. As +a lasting material it has been proved to possess excellent qualities. +The artist, too, has found that leather is capable of being treated so +as to give the effect of delicate carvings, and to serve well many +purposes of decoration. + +In the East leather was used in patriarchal times, the skins of animals +making excellent water bottles. In mediæval England leather black jacks, +cups, and flagons withstood the rough usage of those roisterous times. +The collector seeks both useful and ornamental, and finds much to +delight among the old leathern objects hid away as being now quite +useless or antiquated. + + +Spanish Leather. + +As early as the fifteenth century Cordova, in Spain, was celebrated for +its workers in leather, and for the fine ornamental leather vessels +produced there. Some of the designs favoured by Spanish craftsmen were +gruesome in the extreme. Indeed, many were fashioned for the purpose of +creating fear in the use of the vessels so ornamented. + +A few years ago a remarkably fine collection of old Spanish leather work +was exhibited in London. There were some hideous and grotesque figures, +which it was said had been designed for the mental torture of the +victims of the Inquisition. Some of the larger specimens were remarkably +well executed, especially so some of the wine bottles which imitated +very realistically the pose of men and women. Some of the female figures +were represented wearing flowing gowns and costumes of the height of +fashion--tall and noble women. By way of contrast there were little +manikin wine jugs of the most grotesque forms. + +The Spaniards made leather upholsteries of remarkable designs; they also +ornamented boxes, trunks, and cases for knives and costly trinkets. + + +"Cuir boulli" Work. + +Most of the decorated leather work of that period, examples of which are +not very difficult to secure, was made by the _cuir boulli_ process. The +leather, after being boiled down to a pulp and salt and alum added, was +then moulded to any desired form, the decoration being imparted in the +process. + +The Victoria and Albert Museum is very rich in fine examples, and a +description of some of the typical pieces there may serve as a guide to +collectors hopeful of including some objects moulded by this process +among their household relics. + +The work was carried on at Cordova and other places for a long period, +some of the museum examples dating back to the fifteenth century. There +are cases for holding what were then rare books and manuscripts, and a +remarkable scribe's case with a red cover has loops on either side to +which a cord was attached. The scribe was an important personage in +commercial and private correspondence in the days when even rudimentary +education was by no means general. + +In the same collection is a leather box for holding a knife and fork; on +the outer case is a medallion, in the centre of which is a +representation of the two spies returning from Canaan with a large bunch +of grapes. There are also cases which have once held wine bottles, some +ornamented in colours; indeed, the stamped, cut, and embossed designs of +the _cuir boulli_ work were frequently enriched by the addition of red, +yellow, and gold. + +There are some specially interesting examples of Italian work, +representing a period covering nearly the whole of the Renaissance. In +this connection there are pilgrim bottles of yellow glass encased in +wonderful leather covers, cut and embossed. There are leather snuff +boxes with trellis-work ornament and scroll borders, one very +interesting piece being varnished to imitate tortoiseshell. There are +also some attractive toilet objects, evidently antique presentation +pieces. One is a most elaborately cut and incised comb case, on the +exterior of which is the motto or legend: "DE BOEN AMORE." In the same +collection there is a fine leather case for a cup or tankard. Such cup +cases are not uncommon, many being the receptacles for treasured +heirlooms. Perhaps one of the most noted examples of the use of embossed +and decorative leather work is the ancient case of stamped leather +intricately foliated, a highly decorative work of art in which is +enclosed that remarkable goblet of legendary fame known as "The Luck of +Eden Hall." + + +Tapestry and Upholstery. + +Stamped and embossed leather work is very conspicuous in domestic +upholstery. In very early times the leather work, hung upon the wall in +panels, took the place of more modern wall-coverings, and it was truly +lasting. Much of the Cordovan leather is still very fresh in appearance, +although several centuries old. Some of the panels hanging on the walls +at South Kensington look remarkably fresh, and, richly decorated in +colours, many of them are very effective. A special branch of this work +was that devoted to the decoration of chair backs; stamped leather work +for upholstery has been used in this country to a large extent, and some +of the large oak chairs are still upholstered in the original ornamental +leather produced by boiling the hides by a special process, so that the +material could be readily moulded. In more modern times, however, the +decoration is effected by embossing and stamping, supplementing such +ornament by the use of an immense quantity of small brass nails, which +are arranged in geometrical patterns or straight lines, oftentimes names +and dates being included in the design. + +In this connection also are screens of painted and gilt leather, chiefly +of eighteenth-century manufacture. There is a good deal of this leather +work to be found in old houses still, and much of it is capable of +improvement by properly cleaning and touching up here and there so as to +revive the old colours. Here and there hung up as wall decorations may +be seen leather-covered boxes which were specially made to hold deeds; +in the older examples there is a large circular piece below the narrow +box, arranged so that the seal could hang in its proper position from +the end of the deed; they were, of course, in common use before the days +of safes and other methods of preserving parchments and property deeds. +One in the Victoria and Albert Museum is stamped on the exterior with +the description of the deed it originally contained, the inscription +commencing thus: "THE GRAUNT OF HEN: THE 5 TO THE ABBOT OF RADING." + + +Chests and Coffers. + +Before modern travelling requisites were known and in the days when +journeys were few, the leather-covered coffer contained the whole +travelling outfit of perhaps some noble lord and his household. There +were also large coffers covered with leather used as permanent +receptacles of clothing, covered with ornamental embossed leather work, +some very decorative. There were smaller coffers, too; possibly they +were jewel caskets in their day. There are others which may have been +presentation cases, for their decoration is especially elaborate. In +making these continental craftsmen seem to have excelled. In the +Victoria and Albert Museum there is a curious German casket of wood +covered with leather, strongly bound with iron, having three immense +hasps from which locks once hung, altogether too massive for the little +casket. One would think such precautions were of not much avail against +theft, for the box itself could be removed readily! There is another +charming little casket, with a circular or dome-shaped top, decorated +and banded, a veritable prototype of the tin trunks generally in use a +quarter of a century ago. There is also a remarkable piece, a wood box +covered over with leather embossed by the _cuir boulli_ process. The +chief design takes the form of two armed horsemen, surrounded by +grotesque ornament on the top, on the sides being hunting scenes, +episodes of the chase. This curious example of the work of +seventeenth-century artists in leather measures 16½ in. in length by 12½ +in. in width. Another typical piece, of a highly decorative allegorical +character, is a rectangular coffret with arched lid, the ornament being +in colours and gilt. On the front is a knight and a lady, on the lid two +paladins mounted on griffins, two savages with clubs and shields, and +two images of the sun, these typifying the story of the delivery of a +captured lady by a knight. + + +Leather Bottles and Drinking Vessels. + +Several interesting specialistic collections of leather bottles and +drinking vessels have been got together, showing the varied forms of the +almost imperishable vessels, so suitable as liquor carriers and drinking +cups in olden time. In the Guildhall Museum are several different types +of bottles, black jacks, and silver-rimmed cups. Until comparatively +recent times many old inns were famous for their leather drinking cups, +but as the coaching days came to an end such vessels were gradually +dispersed. Now that motor-cars have popularized the road once more, and +old inns are again frequented, the collector seeks in vain for what were +once quite common. In another noted collection there is a drinking cup +or bottle moulded like a negro's head, and there are what are called +pilgrim bottles, some of which are of ornamental type. The so-called +pots have sometimes lids and loosely fitting covers; the black jacks, +however, are chiefly open, ill-shaped vessels. Some of the black jacks +were very large, one in the Taunton Museum measuring 19 in. in height. +It was originally used in the servants' hall at Montacute House, which +is one of the finest old buildings in Somerset. This famous jack was in +olden time filled with beer every morning and placed on the servants' +breakfast table. Those smaller cups with silver mounts and shields, on +which are often engraved crests or initials of their former owners, are +of the rarer type, but they are not infrequently found among the relics +of an old family. There is a fine collection in the Hull Museum, and in +other places where they are found in excellent condition, proving the +truth of the rhyme published in _Westminster Drollery_ in the +seventeenth century in praise of the black jack, which runs as +follows:-- + + "No tankard, flagon, bottle, or jug + Are half so good, or so well can hold tug; + For when they are broken or full of cracks, + Then must they fly to the brave black jacks." + + +Leather Curios. + +Some very fine pieces of leather work have been modelled as curios and +ornaments. Some of the most notable are models of old warships and fully +rigged galleons made of leather. Leather pictures were made some years +ago; a little later leather modelling of baskets of flowers, and the +making of picture frames of leather was a popular amusement, some of the +ornamental brackets made of leather being specially effective. The +surrounds of picture frames made of leather cut to shape, carved and +modelled, had a very similar effect to the beautiful carved wood work of +an earlier period. Some of the powder flasks of leather which were used +a century or two ago are valued curios, as well as the leather cases +stamped and embossed so decorative and appropriate to the pistols and +knives they were made to contain. Of the finer objects there are small +curios like leather snuff boxes and trinket cases. + +Of the more utilitarian leather work there is the wearing apparel of +former days, the leather clothing of Cromwellian times and the leather +boots. In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a remarkably +interesting case of leather shoes showing the evolution in style and +appearance. There are some very pointed shoes worn in the fourteenth +century, a slightly different shape in the fifteenth, both contrasting +with the change in fashion which had come about in the sixteenth +century, when the boots were square and some of the shoes very rounded. +The Wellington boots of a later period are not yet much valued; there +may come a time, however, when they will be regarded as museum curios. +Leather gloves date back many centuries, and some of the old specimens +with gauntlets and decorative cuffs are interesting antiques, as well as +leather wallets, purses, and girdles. + + +Shoes. + +Among sundry Eastern curios quaintly shaped and sometimes beautifully +embroidered shoes are met with, such as those which have been brought +over to this country from China and Eastern lands. Most of the shoes +worn in the East are slipped off easily, and, like Persian and Turkish +slippers, are made of red leather beautifully embroidered, silk, satin, +and velvet being overlaid and embroidered with silver and sequins. The +old practice of compressing the feet of young girls in China is dying +out, but some of the curious little shoes which gave such pain to their +wearers are seen as museum curios on account of their curious +decoration. Indian shoes are met with at times, especially those +embroidered with silver thread, and with green and other coloured silks. +A curious ceremony is associated with the marriage of a Turkish bride, +who wears a pair of clogs carved all over, sometimes with symbolical +significance, on her way to her prescribed ceremonial visit to the +bath. At one time it was customary for a Jewish bridegroom to present +his bride with a shoe at the conclusion of the wedding ceremony, this +custom being not far removed from that of throwing an old shoe after a +newly married couple for luck. + + +Horn Work. + +Art in horn work was practised more a century ago than it is to-day, the +material being then a favourite one for drinking cups and a variety of +ornamental work. Old snuff boxes were frequently made of horn impressed +or stamped with beautiful designs, such as hunting scenes and +mythological figures. Horn can either be cut, moulded, or turned, its +natural elasticity making it very durable and difficult to break. Its +source of supply is chiefly from the horned cattle, the buffalo and the +bison, the horns of these beasts in their natural state frequently being +mounted on shields just as in later years the horns of smaller animals, +such as the South African varieties of the ibex, springbok, and similar +horned sheep and cattle, are brought over to this country and mounted as +ornaments. It is said that the old art of impressing or stamping horn +and tortoiseshell has long been discarded, and is only retained for +stamping buttons. Fancy hair ornaments were frequently so moulded, the +horn or tortoiseshell being afterwards decorated with inlaid silver and +gold. + +Some of the pressed work is extremely beautiful and has every appearance +of being done by hand, but much cheaper, of course, as the patterns +could be multiplied to any extent after the dies had been cut. Thin +plates of horn were formerly used in lanterns, and a similar piece of +horn was used as a protector over the ancient alphabet and child's +spelling tablet that gave it the name of the horn book. Among household +curios are drinking horns elaborately etched, and frequently turned in a +lathe. They were popular in the seventeenth and early eighteenth +centuries, and the turned patterns then so common were copied by the +silversmiths, who made silver tankards and drinking cups on the same +models. The cornucopia or horn of abundance figures frequently in +sculpture, paintings, and works of art. The horn is one of the early +instruments of music (see Chapter XV), and has long been associated with +sports. It has sounded the "Tally Ho" of the fox hunt, and played an +important part in coaching days. In some old houses veritable horns are +found hung in conspicuous places as relics of the past, but the coaching +horns just referred to are for the most part of metal. + +The Worshipful Company of Horners is still in evidence at City feasts. +The work of the craft in olden time, as recorded by the chaplain of the +Company in a little book he has prepared, giving the history of the +Horners, was practised in the days of King Alfred. At least two hundred +and fifty years before the Norman Conquest many of the patens and +chalices used in churches were made by horners, and at one time cups, +plates, and other vessels made of that useful material were in daily use +in English homes. + + + + +IX + +THE TOILET TABLE + +[Illustration: FIG. 64.--ANTIQUE DRESSING OR TOILET GLASS. + +(_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE TOILET TABLE + + The table and its secrets--Combs--Patch boxes--Enamelled + objects--Perfume boxes and holders--Dressing + cases--Scratchbacks--Toilet chatelaines--Locks of hair--Jewel + cabinets. + + +The mysteries of the toilet table are sometimes revealed in the curious +furnishings of the dressing-room. The numerous accessories which are +purchased from the beauty specialist, and as the result of speciously +worded and attractively illustrated advertisements, in the present day, +indicate that it is not at all unlikely that the fashions of all ages +have demanded a plentiful supply of toilet requisites in order that the +Society beauty might vie with her nearest rival. The curio collector is +not so much concerned with the cosmetics, salves, pomades, and hair +washes and dyes, the use of which has called forth receptacles for them, +as with the choice boxes, cases, and implements of the tonsorial art +which their use involved. + +To search for such things and to secure some hitherto unknown instrument +or receptacle is ever the ambition of the energetic curio hunter. The +field is large enough, for such curios are found in the tombs of the +prehistoric dead, and among the household gods of the primitive savage +in the few remaining unexplored inhabited countries to-day. Such objects +may with a fair prospect of success be looked for among the relics of +Assyrian and Egyptian races, and among the bronze curios of Ancient +Greece and Rome; and excavations reveal relics of Saxon and mediæval +England among the ruins which have been covered up for centuries. + +Coming down the ages, the mysteries of the toilet table, as pictured in +the not always refined engravings of the copper-plate artists of a +century or so ago, tell of habits and conditions prevailing among the +ladies of Society then which would hardly be deemed polite and refined +now. + +Ladies who used patches and cosmetics and dressed their hair in such a +mode that it was rarely let down and brushed, needed many accessories +now obsolete. Moreover, the gradual change which passed over Society, +and the privacy of the modern toilet as compared with the days when much +that is now deemed curious and antique was in common use, has brought +about a new order of things, and made other trinkets than patch, powder, +and salve boxes acceptable gifts between lovers; hence we scarcely +realize the sentiment that induced the donors of toilet requisites to +bestow them on the ladies of their choice, or the recipients to welcome +some of the curios obviously given from sentimental motives. + +The illustrations in books published many years ago incidentally +recorded the use of some of the curios then in the making. The artists +certainly were not over-modest, and far from bashful in the lucid way in +which they pictured or caricatured the toilet table, and the maiden who +in those days was acquainted with the uses of the little relics of her +day which are now among the household curios appropriately grouped under +the heading of this chapter. + + +The Table and its Secrets. + +It is before the looking glass, the central object on, or forming a part +of, the toilet table, that the chief mysteries of the toilet are +performed. It is obvious, therefore, that the table, to be in accord +with the use its name suggests, should be the grand receptacle for all +the minor preparations and their boxes or covers, as well as for the +brushes and combs and mirrors and sundries a Society beauty may require. + +It is scarcely necessary to tax the mental faculties in imagining what +may have been the equivalent to brushes and combs with which the +prehistoric woman of thousands of years ago brushed and combed her +tangled tresses. She was ingenious enough to break off and trim sharp +prickly thorns, and to use them as pins to fasten her scanty home-made +garments, no doubt; and she would probably find in Nature's supply what +served her when making her toilet, and viewing herself in clear pool or +stream. Artists have pictured such toilets, and poets have told of the +toilet and the bath of Greek and Roman maidens of olden time. + +It is said that the toilet of a Roman lady occupied much of her time. +After she had risen and taken her bath she placed herself in the hands +of the _cosmotes_, slaves who possessed the secrets of preserving and +beautifying the complexion of the skin. She frequently wore a medicated +mask and went through what would to-day be considered very painful +operations. Her skin was rubbed with pumice stone, and superfluous hairs +were removed with a pair of tweezers. Grecian slaves were adepts at +colouring eyelashes and eyebrows and treating the lips with red pomade. +The mirror was in frequent use. Many of the polished metal mirrors of +those days were adorned with precious stones and had handles of +mother-o'-pearl; and silver and gold were common in the fashioning of +the framework. Hair appointments, including combs, were very decorative, +frequently being made of ivory, and many beautiful carved specimens are +to be seen in our museums. + +The dressing table as we understand it to-day was of later days, for +many centuries elapsed between the toilet of the ladies just mentioned +and that of English dames whose odds and ends are to be found in most +houses to-day--for few are without family relics of the toilet. + +The toilet or dressing table was originally quite small, and made solely +for the purpose named. It opened very much like a small desk or bureau, +and was seldom more than 18 in. or 20 in. in width. The desk-like flap +served the purpose of a table; behind it was a number of tiny drawers in +which the secret mysteries of the toilet were hidden. There, too, were +the lady's trinkets and jewellery, safely housed in the depths of those +curious recesses. Such a table was surmounted by a looking glass of the +type now spoken of in a generic sense as Sheraton. In line with the more +elaborately fitted tables were independent glasses fitted with a small +drawer--a poor substitute, however, for the toilet table and glass, +combined or used in conjunction, in front of which the ladies of the +eighteenth century performed their toilets. + +In Fig. 64 is illustrated a very beautiful glass of the Oriental style +of japanned decoration. The slide supports of the desk-like flap are on +the principle adopted in the construction of contemporary bureaux. There +is also a drawer, full of compartments, which draws out and discloses +their covers and some of the instruments and articles of the toilet they +contain. + + +Combs. + +The combs of olden time were much more elaborate affairs than they are +to-day. It would appear that the comb which must so frequently have been +viewed by the fair user was considered the most appropriate toilet +requisite on which to expend care and to lavish costly labour in order +to make it truly a thing of beauty, to be retained and even jealously +guarded. + +The precious metals and ivory were used as well as hard woods. Alas! +like the fate of modern combs, the teeth--coarse and fine--snapped one +by one, and oftentimes a rare and beautiful back, between the two rows +of teeth that once were, is nearly all that is left of the once perfect +comb. Many combs of ivory, however, carved all over with exquisite +miniatures, have been preserved, and the scenes upon them have been +incidents of the chase, classic love scenes, and sometimes reproductions +in picture form of well-known biblical scenes, not always of the most +delicately chosen subjects. + +Not long ago a very remarkable gold comb of first-century workmanship +was found near the village of Znamenka, in Southern Russia, where +excavations in a burial mound had brought to light the tomb of a +Scythian king, whose head was adorned with this beautiful comb. The +upper portion represented a combat between three warriors, one mounted +on a charger. That comb, however, should be classed among "dress" combs +rather than dressing combs. + +The ivory combs for combing the hair vary in size and in the strength of +their teeth. Sometimes a comb made of boxwood was inlaid with ivory, and +delicately pierced panels were inserted in the centre of the comb. In +some instances a small mirror is found instead of a carved panel; +especially is that the case with the smaller combs carried in a reticule +or bag. + +Inscriptions were common, such, for instance, as those which breathed +the sentiment on a boxwood comb in the British Museum, which is +inscribed in French: "Accept with goodwill this little gift"; it is a +pretty piece of early work, dating probably from the middle of the +sixteenth century. + +[Illustration: FIG. 65.--THREE OLD SCRATCHBACKS.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 66.--SILVER CHATELAINE TOILET INSTRUMENTS.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 67.--ANOTHER CHATELAINE SET.] + + +Patch Boxes. + +The accessories of the toilet table--useful and ornamental--are many. It +has ever been so, and in the change going on many odds and ends are left +behind and become relics of former practices. Perhaps among the most +interesting of these curios are the little boxes of porcelain, enamelled +wares, and wood, which were once used as "patch" boxes, and as +receptacles for the pigments employed when gumming patches upon the +cheeks and forehead was the height of fashion, and when painting the +face was the rule rather than the exception. + +It may be contended by some that these mysteries of the toilet are not +unknown in the present day, but as yet the modern accessories of the +toilet table do not come within the ken of the curio hunter. It was at +the Court of Louis XV of France that the practice of gumming small +pieces of black taffeta on the cheeks originated, the patches soon +afterwards becoming common in this country. From simple circular discs +were evolved stars, crescents, and other curious forms; then, as in so +many other instances, extremes of fashion brought the practice into +disrepute, for so extravagant became the style that the "coach and +horses" patch and others as absurd came into favour. The famous Sam +Pepys recorded in his Diary the first time he saw his wife wearing a +black patch; apparently it caught his fancy, for he wrote: "My wife +seemed very pretty to-day, it being the first time I had given her lief +to wear a black patch." Incidentally it may be noted that the famous +Pepys controlled even his wife's toilet, and that she was obedient to +him even in the mysteries of the dressing table! + + +Enamelled Objects. + +The receptacles for all these compounds varied; some were of wood, +beautifully carved, often embellished with brass mountings, the insides +being lined with silk, and small mirrors were inserted in the lids. The +pretty trinket trays, curiously coloured and decorated, boxes, and +little candlesticks for "my lady's table," made of Battersea and other +enamels, were much in favour a century or more ago. + +Some remarkably charming boxes are met with stamped with the name of +Lille, in France, where many such objects were made--the English enamels +of that period are rarely if ever marked. + +It would appear that very many of these little articles were the gifts +of friends or purchased as souvenirs of the comparatively rare visits to +fashionable places of resort. Many of those given by friends were chosen +because of the mottoes and emblems with which they were decorated; for, +like the combs, they were made use of to convey messages of love and +friendship. We can well understand the fear that might arise lest +patches became loose and rendered the fair wearer ludicrous; hence the +little mirrors so often found within the boxes, which it may be +mentioned were carried about in the pocket ready for use when +opportunity served. + +Many of the older specimens are found with mirrors of steel which, owing +to exposure to damp, have become very rusty, and, in some instances, +have perished altogether. Others with silvered glass mirrors show spots, +and are much blurred from the same cause. The colourings of enamels +vary; in some the groundwork is white, in others pink or rose-colour or +blue. Little picture scenes are varied with the quaint mottoes or +sentimental lines so much in vogue then. + +The illustrations given in Fig. 63 are typical of the choicer +decorations, showing the floral style as well as the pictorial miniature +scenes for which the artists of that time were famous. Some of the +toilet sundries took the form of scent bottles, others etui cases and +boxes for toilet requisites, including manicure sets. + + +Perfume Boxes and Holders. + +Perfume has always been associated with the requisites of the lady's +toilet. Sweet-smelling spices are referred to in biblical records, and +even to-day the offering of perfume is a symbol of honour to the guest +in the East; and some very beautiful Oriental scent sprinklers and spice +boxes are now and then met with among Eastern curios. The long-necked +rose-water sprinkler is the most common form, supplemented by betel-nut +boxes and receptacles made by Persian artists for the famous attar of +roses. Scents and "sweet odours" became fashionable in Europe in the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; articles of clothing were scented, +and there was a profusion of scent for the hair and in making the +toilet. + +The pomander box, the favourite perfume holder of the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries of England, was in the form of an apple, the +perfumes and spices being made up like a ball. It is said that the +perfume was prepared from a sixteenth-century recipe, the basis of which +was sweet apples or apple pulp, and scented gums and essences. From the +pomander box smaller receptacles were evolved, and more elaborately +prepared scents were kept in them. Some of the preparations consisted of +camphor, mint, rosemary, and lavender in vinegar, a piece of sponge +being saturated with the liquid. Then came the use of aromatic vinegar, +and gradually beautiful little silver vinaigrettes were introduced. Many +of them were very ornamental in shape, highly decorated with miniatures +and floreated embellishment, the monogram or name of the owner often +being added. In the outer case was usually a cover of perforated gold +which closed over a piece of sponge, upon which aromatic vinegar or some +similar preparation was poured. The best vinaigrettes are those bearing +the hall-marks varying from 1800 to about 1840, when the making of +vinaigrettes declined and other scents took their place. + +The burning of perfumes in bedrooms and the fumigation of wardrobes and +chests by means of a fumador was a custom much resorted to by Portuguese +ladies in the eighteenth century. Sweet lavender is still used in the +linen cupboard, although its use was much more general in the days when +London street cries were heard. + + +Dressing Cases. + +When people travel and visit their friends their luggage includes among +other things a dressing case, for there are many toilet requisites which +are of a personal character, and cannot well be substituted by others. +It is true that the need of portable dressing cases has increased of +late years owing to greater travelling abroad. Dressing cases, however, +are by no means modern, for some very beautiful examples with +silver-topped bottles, hall-marked in the days of Queen Anne, are among +the collectable curios. There is a still older example in the Victoria +and Albert Museum--a case of tortoiseshell, filled with a complete +toilet set, consisting of four combs and thirteen toilet instruments, +partly of steel and partly of silver. It is an historic case, having +been presented by Charles II to a Mr. T. Campland, who is said to have +at one time sheltered him. Many old families have interesting and +valuable examples, and not infrequently isolated cut-glass bottles with +Georgian hall-marked silver tops which have formed part of the equipment +of dressing cases are met with. + + +Scratchbacks. + +Old English scratchbacks are among the rarities of the curios associated +with the toilet table. It is unnecessary to comment upon the habits and +customs of those periods when scratchbacks were found necessary, or to +refer to the hygienic conditions of the toilet then conspicuous by their +absence. It is sufficient to allude to these curious little +instruments, mostly shaped like a hand, often of ivory, and always +fitted with a handle in length from 12 to 15 in. The hand in some cases +is large in proportion, measuring as much as 2½ in. in length, sometimes +as an open hand, at others with the fingers closed, often very +beautifully modelled. Horn and whalebone were favourite materials for +the handle, although some were of ebony and other woods. Scratchbacks +appear to have been made both in lefts and rights in this country; but +the scratchbacks of the Far East were invariably rights. The +accompanying illustrations, Fig. 65, show the usual types of these now +obsolete toilet requisites, which it may be noted were sometimes +duplicated by miniature scratchbacks carried about on the person, hung +from the girdle. + + +Toilet Chatelaines. + +The chatelaines worn by the ladies of olden time were bulky, and the +various objects deemed necessary to carry about the person rendered them +cumbersome in the extreme. A bunch of keys was always in evidence, and a +glance at a few old keys indicates how large the keys of even quite +small boxes were in olden time. There were the keys of the store +cupboard, of the linen chest, and of the larder and the wine cellar. +Drawers and cupboards and boxes, as well as the bureau or desk, were +always locked, and to deliver up the keys was indeed to surrender one of +the privileges of the matron and housewife which were jealously guarded. + +[Illustration: FIG. 68.--FINE ORIENTAL LACQUERED BOX.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 69.--SMALL LACQUER CABINET.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 70.--A PAGODA-SHAPED CASKET.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 71.--DECORATED JEWEL CASE.] + +There were articles of toilet use, too, worn at the girdle. It is +recorded that Queen Elizabeth carried her earpick of gold ornamented +with pearls and diamonds. The little set, which was worn at a lady's +chatelaine in the eighteenth century, shown in Fig. 66, consists of +toothpick, earpick, and tongue scraper of silver, whereas the set +illustrated in Fig. 67 includes tweezers, a nail knife, and other +instruments. There are some charming manicure sets extant, as well as +isolated nail files of ivory and steel, and curious little instruments +for simple surgical operations, such as strong-nerved ladies were not +averse to perform in the good old days. + + +Locks of Hair. + +Although long since separated from toilet operations, mention of locks +of hair so carefully preserved may not inappropriately be made here. +Many of these are associated with happy memories of childhood, others of +more saddened recollections. It has been a common practice to preserve +locks of hair of departed friends and relatives. In former days these +locks of hair were often enclosed in lockets, some of which were very +large. The simple lock did not always satisfy, for there are many +artistic plaits and beautifully formed sprays, imitating feathers and +even flowers, which were in years gone by cunningly interwoven and +artistically arranged on cardboard preserved by glass, often in golden +lockets and frames. Some persons have made quite important collections, +one of the most noted being that of Menelik II, the Abyssinian king, who +possessed upwards of two thousand locks, varying from light to dark, and +from fine to coarse, each lock being labelled with the date and +particulars of its acquisition. It would be well perhaps not to enter +too closely into the source of some of these specimens, which had +peculiar interest to the dusky king. It is said that some of them were +chiefly admired for their settings, which included mounting with rare +emeralds. The collection of emeralds, of which he had some of marvellous +beauty and lustre, was another of that monarch's hobbies. + + +Jewel Cabinets. + +In association with the toilet table are the numerous boxes which have +been made as receptacles for jewels. From the days when the dower chest +contained a small compartment for valuable trinkets the furniture of the +lady's boudoir has been incomplete without a jewel box or some article +of furniture where the knick-knacks of the home could be kept, and more +especially the wearable jewellery. The Chinese and Japanese have ever +been clever in the fashioning of small cabinets, and many delightful +little boxes, cabinets, and jewellery receptacles have been brought over +to this country. + +Some of the old lacquer ware is exceptionally interesting, the +decorations upon such pieces being doubly so when the legends they +depict are fully realized and understood. The accompanying illustrations +represent four Japanese jewel cases which are exceptionally fine curios. +Fig. 70 is decorated on the outside of the doors with a view of +Itsukushima; and there are two peacocks on the top, and the two elders +of Takasago are depicted on the back. The bamboo and the plum are +designs symbolical of longevity. This truly exceptional piece was sold +in the auction rooms of Glendining & Co., who also disposed of the +remarkable jewel box shaped as a pagoda, illustrated in Fig. 71, a very +beautiful piece elaborately decorated with birds and landscapes, and the +box illustrated in Fig. 68 and small cabinet, Fig. 69. + + + + +X + +THE OLD WORKBOX + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE OLD WORKBOX + + Spinning wheels--Materials and work--Little + accessories--Cutlery--Quaint woodwork--The needlewoman--Old + samplers. + + +Under the generic term of "workbox" the curios of the household +associated with the industrial handiwork of former days may well be +reviewed. There is no record of when receptacles for ladies' work were +first introduced, although, no doubt, in very early days small oak +boxes, carved, and bearing the owner's initials, and other indications +of ownership, would be the chosen receptacles for the numerous oddments +which are required in the practice and pursuit of every home handicraft, +and especially those connected with plying the needle. There was a time, +however, when the fabrics used in the making up of clothing were +home-made, when the seamstress and the needleworker stitched and +embroidered upon cloths spun if not actually woven by the housewife and +her handmaidens. In the barrows containing remains of people of the +Stone Age, and the peoples of the early Bronze Age, among the few +ornaments and personal adornments buried with them were spinning +whorls--the curiosities which remain to us of the earliest known form of +textile craftsmanship. + + +Spinning Wheels. + +In old pictures and woodblock engravings some curious illustrations are +met with showing Englishwomen using the distaff. St. Distaff's Day was +formerly the 7th of January, for it was then that the women resumed work +after the Christmas festivities were over. The distaff and the spindle +belonged to an age little understood now, and the occupations of the +women of that date are almost forgotten. The spinning wheel was the +outcome of the simpler distaff and spindle, and although the spinning +wheels we find among the most interesting of household relics look +primitive indeed compared with the complex machinery seen in the +spinning mills to-day, those dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries must have been considered ingenious contrivances when compared +with the older models, just as the latest types of sewing machines show +a wonderful advance from the early machines invented in the beginning of +the nineteenth century. + +Very clever indeed were many women in manipulating the spinning wheel, +and there seems to have been some competitive contests for notoriety +among country women, who found a pleasing though perhaps at times +tedious occupation in spinning the wool for the local weaver who wove +the home-made cloth. It is recorded that in 1745 a woman at East Dereham +spun a single pound of wool into a thread of 84,000 yards. She was +far outdistanced, however, a few years later, when a young lady at +Norwich out of a pound of combed wool produced a thread computed to +measure 168,000 yards. + + +[Illustration: FIG. 72.--OLD SPINNING WHEEL. + +(_In the collection of Mr. Phillips, of the Manor House, Hitchin._)] + +To secure a fine spinning wheel is the ambition of collectors, and many +ladies point with pride to the old relic placed in a position of honour +on an oak chest of drawers, or, perhaps, standing on a coffer in the +hall. An exceptionally fine wheel is shown in Fig. 72; it is one of many +secured by Mr. Phillips, of the Manor House, Hitchin. Another +illustration is taken from a sketch of a spinning wheel in the Hull +Museum (see Fig. 73). It appears that early in the nineteenth century +Hull encouraged the training of domestic spinners, and at that time +supported a spinning school. _Apropos_ of that institution reference may +appropriately be made to Hadley's "History of Hull," in which the +historian, in reference to Sunday Schools, which had then quite recently +been founded, says: "From the Sunday School reports for this year [1788] +it seems they did not take. To whatever cause this may be attributed, it +by no means warrants the aspersions thrown upon the town on that +account, which has with equal ardour and wisdom espoused that useful +establishment of Spinning Schools, in preference to a preposterous +institution replete with folly, intolerance, fanaticism, and mischief." +In explanation it has been remarked that, "Evidently wheels were +plentiful in Hull and Sunday Schools a novelty." To-day we can reverse +the statement, for schools are plentiful but spinning wheels are rare! + +Collectors eagerly secure anything in the way of a genuine antique +wheel, although the fastidious have the choice of two distinct +types--those worked by hand and those operated by a treadle. Sometimes a +spinning wheel made for the foot could be worked independently by the +hand, just in the same way as modern sewing machines are made for hand +or treadle, and sometimes a combination of both methods. The very +general use of the spinning wheel is accounted for by the fact that this +useful machine was met with in every cottage in the days when homespun +yarns and wools were prepared by hand, and they were also found in the +mansion and the palace, where they served to amuse the ladies of the +household. + +There are many varieties of spinning wheels, among them the old oak +spinning wheels used in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, and the more decorative used until quite late in the +eighteenth century, from their ornament and lightness, apparently used +more for preparing the material for fancy work rather than for really +utilitarian purposes. Some highly decorative spinning wheels inlaid with +mother-o'-pearl and ivory have been brought over to this country from +Holland and other continental countries, perhaps the most decorative +being those made by French workmen in the Chinese style, the wood being +lacquered blue and ornamented with gilt. + +Mr. John Suddaby, who presented the spinning wheel we have illustrated +to the Hull Wilberforce Museum, named after William Wilberforce, paid a +high tribute to the famous philanthropist, who he declared to be +associated with the spinning schools of the town. The old wheels of +early date were gradually improved until they were rendered obsolete by +the greater inventions of machines which could be worked by steam +engines, thus originating the factory system of textile production. + +Among the sundry curios associated with the spinning wheel are +handsomely carved wood distaffs of boxwood, curiously turned spindles; +and now and then a pewter vessel of circular form, puzzling in its +identity, turns out to be the rim cup from the distaff of an old +spinning wheel. + + +Materials and Work. + +Old workboxes appear to be very numerous. The older ones were mostly of +wood, but the external decoration seems to have been a matter of taste, +some preferring inlays. In early days moulded plaster ornament, richly +gilded and coloured, was much favoured, and in still earlier times deep +relief carvings in the oak of which the boxes were made. In the Stuart +and later periods ladies worked the exterior ornament in silks and +satins and embroidery. Among the workboxes in the Victoria and Albert +Museum there is a painted box in distemper and gilding, the subject +chosen for the ornamentation of the lid being the story of David and +Bathsheba, round the sides being floral devices. This decorative workbox +has drawers and compartments, a sliding front facilitating their use. + +In the same collection there are workboxes overlaid with straw work in +geometrical patterns relieved by colour. Straw-work decoration was much +favoured at the commencement of the nineteenth century, its origin being +traceable to the French military prisoners in this country during the +Napoleonic wars between the years 1797 and 1814, when many officers and +men were detained at Porchester Castle, near Portsmouth, and at Norman +Cross, near Peterborough. The grasses, of which the boxes were covered, +were collected and dried by the prisoners, who obtained the different +shades and tints which render this class of work so effective by +steeping them in infusions of tea, according to a note by Dr. Strong, +who visited the barracks at Norman Cross. + +The workboxes, so rich in gilding and relief, came from Italy, when, as +early as the year 1400, caskets were covered with a species of lime +which was moulded, the gesso, as it was called, on a gilt ground of +white compo, giving it a very rich effect. Leather was used with good +effect, too, for the ornamentation of workboxes, red morocco being much +favoured in England early in the nineteenth century. Fig. 76 illustrates +three very beautiful little fitted boxes with inlaid ornament and straw +work. + + +Little Accessories. + +The contents of an old workbox are many and varied. Among the odds and +ends it is no uncommon thing to find relics of lace-making, by which so +many cottagers have been able to maintain themselves for generations. + +[Illustration: FIG. 73.--SPINNING WHEEL. + +(_In the Hull Museum._)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 74.--OLD LACE BOBBINS. + +(_a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_, and _f_, reading from left to right.)] + +There is something very remarkable about the manufacture of pillow lace, +in that it is carried on in the villages of Buckinghamshire just as it +was two or more centuries ago, and the pillow and the bobbins are almost +identical in form and design--indeed, the patterns of the lace have +changed little, for the workers cling tenaciously to the old designs, +Flemish in their characteristics, just as they do to the old bobbins. + +Some of these little spools or bobbins have been handed down from mother +to daughter as heirlooms, and many of them carry a romantic story, if it +were but known. Just as the Welsh lovespoons and the Sunderland glass +rolling-pins were given as love tokens, many of these bobbins are the +result of patient labour, their decoration having often been the work of +days; ivory, bone, wood, and metal being cut and shaped, gilded and +stained, in order to provide the favoured one with a bobbin unlike any +other and quite distinctive in design. In the making of pillow lace, +pins, cleverly placed so as to form the pattern, were inserted into the +cushion, and the threads on a dozen or more bobbins deftly twisted in +and out and tied round the pins. The glass beads, many of the older ones +of odd shapes and colours, hand-made, made the first distinction, and +their weight helped to keep the light turned wood bobbins in place. It +was the bobbins which were ornamental, and some of the older ones--those +made in the eighteenth century--are very decorative, and now much sought +after by collectors. Those illustrated in Fig. 74 have been selected +from a large collection for their representative types: (A) is the +oldest; the ornament is of pewter let into the wood, it has a very small +spool; (B) is ivory, the incised parts stained green; (C) is bone, the +incised pattern filled in with gold beaten into a thin plate; (D) is +also of bone with a band of brass and coloured inlays; (E) walnut wood, +turned in the deep grooves are six loose silver rings, some of the heads +are of brass gilt; (F) the most modern type, such as may be seen in use +in Buckinghamshire to-day, the present revival of the hand-made lace +industry being due to the efforts of the North Bucks Lace Association. +Of such handwork Cowper wrote:-- + + "Yon cottager who weaves at her own door, + Pillow and bobbins all her little store: + Content, though mean, and cheerful, if not gay, + Shuffering her threads about the livelong day." + +The lace-maker, and the housewife who occupied her leisure moments in +lace-making, left behind many collectable curios. The worker of samplers +and those advanced in the higher arts of needlecraft had also their +little work necessaries. Very clever indeed were the workers of +silk-embroidered pictures, and the instruments they used were fine and +delicate, different indeed from the coarser needles of the knitter and +the meshes of the netter. In later years the workbox became more +substantial, and less attention was given to the exterior, for the +interior fittings of the workbox became beautiful, and a wealth of art +was shown in the carving of the ivory accessories, and the pearl tops of +the thread and silk reels and winders and the curious little wax +holders. There were cleverly contrived measuring tapes, and beautiful +little baskets of ivory and wood, some filled with emery, others serving +the purpose of receptacles for pins and needles. From these evolved the +needlebooks and the more modern companions. + +[Illustration: FIG. 75.--OLD PIN POPPETS AND ANCIENT PINS.] + +In Fig. 77 are shown several beautiful oddments taken out of an old +workbox; they are all made of ivory, carved and fretted in such delicate +tracery that it is a wonder that they have survived for a century or +more without injury. Ivory work holders, in which ladies rolled their +needlework when they went out to tea, were often beautifully carved; +they, too, are charming additions to ivory workbox fittings. + + +Cutlery. + +The cutler has contributed to the curios of the workbox. The knives and +scissors, bodkins, and stilettos from an old workbox look strangely out +of date when compared with those bought in the shops to-day. The chief +thing that is so noticeable to the critical observer is the cutting of +the steel and the hand ornamentation of those days. Some of the +embroidery scissors were engraved all over with fancy patterns, and +there are some remarkably quaint button-hole scissors, on which the +owner's name or initials were often engraved. + +Some time ago an old lady made a small collection of thimbles. It was +not a very expensive hobby, but the variety she secured was truly +remarkable. There were thimbles of bone, ivory, steel, brass, enamel, +silver, and even gold. Some were chased and engraved, some stamped and +punched. There were thimbles of huge size and others with open ends, the +same that sailors use. + +It is said that the thimble dates back to 1684, when one Nicholas +Benschoten, of Amsterdam, sent one as a present to a lady friend with +the dedicatory inscription: "To My frouw van Rensclear this little +object which I have invented and executed as a protective covering for +her industrious fingers." It is said the name in this country was +originally "thumb-bell," so called because of the shape being of +bell-like form. Of the thimbles of the wealthy it is recorded there are +thimbles of onyx, mother-o'-pearl, and of gold, encrusted with rubies +and diamonds--the seamstress has, however, to be content with useful if +less costly "baubles." + + +Quaint Woodwork. + +By way of contrast the outfit of the worker often includes wooden +needles and occasionally utensils made of wood, but covered with +evidences of love and tender regard for those who were destined to use +them. The knitter seems to have been peculiarly fortunate, for knitting +sticks and sheaths afforded the amateur carver ample opportunities of +showing his skill; and, like the carved lovespoons, of which there is +such a famous collection in the Cardiff Museum, the knitting sheaths and +sticks seem to indicate that in a similar way the amorous swain gave +vent to his feelings in the curious designs, mottoes, and names which he +carved upon knitting sticks and kindred objects used by the lady of his +choice. In the Victoria and Albert Museum there are some beautiful +boxwood needle sticks; one example is cleverly carved with emblems of +Faith, Hope, and Charity. Another beautiful needle stick in the same +collection is mounted with silver. On some of the woodwork used for +similar purposes there are cleverly designed pictures, and these were +not always associated with private use, for the clothworkers in many +districts used quite fanciful tools, especially in the villages, where +time was of small moment, and the long winter evenings could be occupied +with cutting and carving the handles and framework of the tools which in +everyday practice served such a useful and often wage-earning purpose. +In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a remarkable cloth-measure +made of walnut, bearing date 1745, three-sided, one being covered over +with letters of the alphabet cut in deep relief, thus serving a useful +purpose in the home or as an educational standard. On the second side +there are cleverly designed pastoral and hunting scenes, and on the +third the arms of the Swiss cantons. Other portions of the measure +illustrate the implements and tools used by clothworkers at that period. + +Switzerland has long been famous for its wood carving, and many of the +curios found in this country have come from the Swiss mountain villages. +No doubt some of our readers have come across the old pin poppets which +boys and girls carried with them to the village school half a century or +more ago. The girls filled them with pins and needles, bodkin and +stiletto, and the boys with pencils and pens. In Fig. 75 two curious old +pin boxes are illustrated. The _pins_ shown on the same page are, +however, of much older date; they are, in fact, merely thorns; these +interesting and authentic relics of the "common objects of the home," or +perhaps more correctly described, of dress, are to be seen in the +National Collection of Wales at Cardiff, the measuring stick shown in +the photograph giving their size. The pin poppet, as its name denotes, +was, however, intended originally for the requirements of the early +needleworker who at the dames' school won renown in those great +achievements--the samplers of old. These, however, do not exhaust the +wood-carving curios of the workbox, but they may serve to remind +collectors of what they may hope to discover in their hunt for household +curios. + + +The Needlewoman. + +The curiosities much prized to-day, the work of the needlewoman, or +those who plied the needle chiefly for purposes of amusement or to give +pleasure to those on whom they bestowed the products of their skill, are +met with in many distinct forms. This is not a work on needlework, or we +might tell of the various stitches which are indicative of certain +periods. It is, however, admissible to mention some of the household +curios, the product of such patient labour applied to the skilful +manipulation of silks and threads and cottons and wools, of all colours +and substances, embroidered or worked on canvas or other fabric. + +[Illustration: FIG. 76.--THREE OLD WORKBOXES. + +(_In the collection of Mr. Phillips, of Hitchin._)] + +The mistresses of the old English homes were very industrious. They +worked crewel bed hangings and cross-stitch and tent-stitch upholstery +in the seventeenth century, and in still earlier times richly ornamented +linens and other fabrics with flowers and scriptural subjects. Writing +in reference to Queen Mary, the wife of William III, Sir Charles Sedley +said:-- + + "When she rode in coach abroad + She was always knotting thread." + +And her example was followed by many in humbler circumstances. In later +years women have wrought needlework and beadwork pictures, and have even +threaded their needles with human hair when no silk could be found fine +enough. + +Of the permanent ornaments of the home--now valued curios--there are +cases formerly used on a lady's toilet table, embroidered with floss +silk and frequently dated. Some were made to hold devotional books, +others were portable boxes, the covers of which were worked on white +satin with coloured silks and beads, oftentimes scriptural scenes being +depicted in silk; one very favourite scene in the seventeenth century +was the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. + +Many beautifully embroidered trinket boxes record the patience with +which they were worked, and were undoubtedly a labour of love. Among the +smaller objects, gifts from friend to friend, were pincushions, some of +which bear dates in the seventeenth century. These were worked in +coloured silks on canvas, the ornament often taking the form of a fruit +or flower basket, birds and insects. The favourite material and colour +for the back of such pincushions was yellow satin. A rather pleasing +variety consisted of bag and pincushion worked to match, the two being +united by a cord of plaited silk. Of purses there were many varieties, +chiefly made of coarse canvas worked in cross and tent stitches with +coloured silks and silver threads, couched or laid over silver thread, +and then stitched to the canvas concealing it. There are also miniature +pincushions worked in silk like the old samplers and brocade pocket +books, some of which were woven in France in the seventeenth century. +There are also holdalls and needle cases in embroidery and cross stitch. +The favourite colours worked by English ladies in the eighteenth century +were pink, orange, and light green. On these were often worked mottoes +and rhyme. One will serve as a sample:-- + + "When Judah's daughters captive led + Behold their mighty kings subdued." + +Loyal mottoes were frequently worked, especially during the days when +the Pretenders were carrying on their hopeless campaign. There is a +subtle reminder of the desire to make known loyal feelings, intermixed +with prudence in concealing them, in the quaint embroidered garter in +the British Museum which is inscribed "GOD BLESS P.C." + +To smokers were given embroidered tobacco pouches in green, pink, and +silver; one charming old beadwork tobacco pouch in Taunton Castle is +embroidered "LOVE ME FOR I AM THINE, 1631." There were necklaces and +bracelets of needlework, and some of coloured glass beads, as well as +the long watchguards worn round the neck, chiefly of the nineteenth +century. + +[Illustration: FIG. 77.--OLD WORKBOX FITTINGS. + +(_In the Author's collection._)] + + +Old Samplers. + +Old samplers may well be regarded as educational, belonging to the +schoolroom as well as to the workbox. They were intended to teach +needlework, and served as reminders of alphabets, sums, and mapping. +Many worked in silk on yellow linen in the eighteenth century were quite +elaborate pieces of needlework. Those of the seventeenth century, +chiefly of linen, were much cruder and simpler in design. During the +latter half of the eighteenth century samplers were mostly worked on +canvas or sampler cloth, a material which was used almost as long as +samplers were in fashion. Different stitches were employed; there was +the early drawn and cut work, and then the silk embroidery showing the +girl's acquirement of the darning stitch. + +Some early tapestry maps are numbered among the educational curios in +which samplers are so prominent. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society own +two unique specimens of sixteenth-century tapestry, formerly in the +possession of Horace Walpole. They measure about 16 ft. by 12 ft., the +sections including Herefordshire, Shropshire, Gloucestershire, +Oxfordshire, and a part of Berkshire. These remarkable maps are vividly +coloured and show excellent pictorial scenes indicating villages, parks, +and country seats. Such maps are rare, but now and then really +interesting examples of needlework mapping are met with. + +Collectors keep an eye on preservation, but they are keen on dated +specimens, and those with ornate and quaintly picturesque borders. The +condition adds to the beauty, but not always to the value, for many of +the older and less well-preserved samplers are now becoming scarce. They +have been retained by those who have no interest in antiques because +they bore the name of some fair ancestress who lived and worked on her +sampler more than a century ago, leaving it behind as a memorial of her +skill in the use of a needle for future generations to admire. How many +ladies of the twentieth century are preparing permanent records of their +skill in needlework for those who are to come to hand on to generations +unborn? is a question some may like to ponder. + + + + +XI + +THE LIBRARY + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LIBRARY + + From cover to cover--Old scrap books--Almanacs--The writing + table. + + +The library is usually where the master of the house conducts his +business correspondence and, if a student, spends much of his time among +his favourite books, or, perchance, engages in literary work. In days +gone by, when there were fewer opportunities of visiting public +libraries, and when circulating libraries were few and far between, the +man of letters accumulated around him standard works and ancient tomes, +possibly seldom read. When such a library, perhaps scarcely examined for +a century or more, comes to be dispersed, it often happens that +curiosities are brought to light. + +The furniture of the library is full of interest, for a quaint writing +table, bureau, or desk full of oddments is an exceedingly prolific field +of research. In the following paragraphs a few of these curiosities are +referred to; there are others, however, that the collector will +discover, possibly one of the scarcer curios of the library, some of +which realize unexpectedly high prices when they are brought under the +hammer. + + +From Cover to Cover. + +The books which constitute the library are often curious, and there is +much that receives its monetary value on account of its antiquity and +rarity. An old library will frequently include black-letter printing and +old volumes illustrated with wood blocks, and, perchance, illuminated +initial letters. Some of the volumes may be printed on vellum, and there +may be some in manuscript. The bindings of presentation books may be of +rich calf and tooled in gold; some may even have edge paintings and +choice hand-painted illuminations. The subject-matter of the volumes +often gives rise to specialistic collections. Some will find amusement +in tracing the progress of a great industry through published +information, like those curious old time tables in the early days of +railways, and the pamphlets which are classed by the collector as +"Railroadia," and from them learn the story of the "iron horse." There +are others who collect books and prints relating to ballooning, the +microscope, and many of the earlier sciences. There are topographical +curiosities and historical marvels. Some books will be valued because of +their illustrations, for the work of a master hand may be recognized by +the expert searcher after valuables. The rare mezzotints, stipples, and +delicate line engravings, to say nothing of the more valuable colour +prints, often realize far more than the books themselves. Ancient art is +more valued than the literary efforts of past masters of wielding the +pen! + +It is thus that the books are often thrown away after the pictures or +even superadded illustrations or mere name-plates have been removed. The +collector of bookplates searches for his treasures. Some talk of the +vandalism of the collector of ex-libris, but they must remember that it +is quite easy to remove a bookplate without injuring the volume, and +there are many worthless books. The name labels or bookplates found in +English libraries range from the early dated plates of the close of the +seventeenth century to the present day. The different styles of ornament +in vogue in the respective periods of their engraving were with few +exceptions adhered to by the printers of such plates. Thus the collector +classifies his albums and rejoices in the variations and details of the +engraver's fancy, while he separates them into such well-defined groups +as early armorial, Jacobean, Chippendale, ribbon and wreath, urn, +pictorial, armorial, and simple shield. To other than the enthusiastic +collector, bookplates may possess merit in that they have belonged to +famous men, and are souvenirs taken from the volumes which were once +handled by distinguished statesmen, divines, and men of letters. + + +Old Scrap Books. + +The making of scrap books or the filling of portfolios was not always an +amusement for children, neither did older folk make those quaint scrap +books with such assortments of literary and pictorial odds and ends +solely for the amusement of their visitors. Many enthusiastic collectors +stored their treasures in such books, the binding of which was often +very costly and quite gorgeously ornamented. Some pointed with pride to +collections of prints, others to albums of frontispieces, printers' +marks, and tailpieces, some of which were beautiful little pictures. + +In modern times collectors rescue from the flames old tickets, pictorial +benefit tickets, theatre passes, and quaint pictures which tell us of +great events which happened in days gone by at Ranelagh, Vauxhall, and +other places. + +Ranelagh, where the entertainments of which relics in the shape of +beautifully engraved tickets are to be found, was at Chelsea, and the +gardens visited by Walpole, Johnson, and Goldsmith were famous for their +promenades and for the music and singing which might be enjoyed, among +the evening pleasures being displays of fireworks and masked dances. In +the summer tea and coffee were sipped under the trees, and there were +water carnivals on the river. There were also masquerade balls and +dances, for which tickets engraved by Bartolozzi and other famous +artists were issued. It is these tickets which are preserved and +collected now. + +The autograph hunter extends his hobby by adding old parchments and +deeds with seals, for among the odd bundles of parchments in old +libraries are many documents attested with thumb-marks and seals--"His +mark," of days when many of the landed proprietors could not write their +own names. + +[Illustration: FIG. 78.--ANCIENT CLOG ALMANAC.] + +The joys of St. Valentine's Day, remembered by older people still, are +unknown to the present generation, but collectors perpetuate February +14th as it was kept in the past by filling albums with such old +valentines as they may be able to secure. + + +Watch Papers. + +Another comparatively small collection can be made up of pictorial watch +papers, those rare little pictorial views which once reposed in the +interior of the cases of old watches. Watches are by no means common +curios of the household, but now and then an old silver verge or a +decorated watch case thought little of is found to contain one of those +pretty pictures which were chiefly engraved and printed in the +eighteenth century. Many of the designs were printed on satin; some were +devices in needlework; again others were cut out in the most lace-like +designs. Theatrical celebrities were often pictured; thus the theatrical +amateur would buy his watch paper representing the celebrated Miss +Gunning, or possibly Mr. Garrick. The pictures were really gems, too, +for great artists such as Angelica Kaufmann, Cipriani, and Bartolozzi +did not disdain to engrave watch papers. + + +Old Almanacs. + +Some of the best finds when libraries have been overhauled have been the +curious old almanacs published when superstition was rife. The oldest, +perhaps, were the clog almanacs, although some were common in +Staffordshire until about 1820. The accompanying illustration (see Fig. +78) was engraved in an old book referring to that county published more +than a century ago. In Camden's _Britannia_ some information is given in +reference to these early clog almanacs, in which it is said holidays +were distinguished by hieroglyphics; in some the Massacre of the +Innocents was denoted by a drawn sword; SS. Simon and Jude's Day by a +ship, because they were fishers; and St. George's Day by a horse. In the +Norway clog almanacs St. Martin's Day is marked with a goose, the custom +of eating a goose now being transferred to Michaelmas. In the +illustration given in Fig. 78 the first section embraces January, +February, and March; the second, April, May, and June; the third, July, +August, and September; and the fourth, October, November, and December. +Conspicuously inscribed on the clog will be noticed the ring for New +Year's Day; the star denoting the Epiphany; the axe for St. Paul; +February 14th is indicated by a lover's knot; a spear denotes St. +George's Day in April; and May Day by a tree branch. The keys of St. +Peter are noticed as indicating the 29th of June; the scales of St. +Michael are seen at the end of September. St. Catherine's wheel figures +in the middle of November, immediately under it being the somewhat large +cross of St. Andrew. Other symbols will doubtless be recognized on this +interesting relic. + +The study of the almanac is not now one of the chief diversions of the +fair sex. At one time, however, when ladies had fewer amusements than +they have now, they spent much time poring over almanacs, and placed +implicit trust in what they found recorded there, especially in the +forecasts and prognostications for the future of those born on certain +days and under so-called lucky or unlucky stars. One of the most popular +calendars of olden time was "The Ladies' Diary or the Woman's Almanac," +containing many delightful and entertaining particulars for the fair +sex. Let us take, for example, a copy of that popular almanac for the +year of grace 1749. On the cover there is a picture of the Queen. +Alluding to the peace then prevailing are the lines:-- + + "Perch'd o'er this Realm, the ancient seat of Kings, + Now dove-like peace the sprig of laurel brings; + And British fair ones happy days shall see, + While George shall reign, and Britons still are free." + +Another George is on the throne, and his consort Queen Mary is an ideal +woman, and what to many is of the highest importance, Peace reigns in +this country and Britons are still free! + +Among the contents of that curious almanac are Latin and French enigmas, +mathematical questions and paradoxes. The concluding paragraph for the +dedication of that day is entitled "Truth's Moral Euclid"; the +proposition given being:-- + + "Virtue promotes happiness, private and public. + Vice is destructive of happiness, private and public. + Honour is the reward of virtue." + +One of the finest collections of old almanacs is in the Bodleian Library +at Oxford--chiefly seventeenth-century productions. A still older +almanac was the "Poor Robin" of 1664; another seventeenth-century +almanac being the "Vox Stellarum" of Francis Moore, a quack doctor. In +1733 Benjamin Franklin published in Philadelphia his "Poor Richard's +Almanac," noted for its verses, jests, and sayings. The monopoly once +possessed by the Stationers' Company has long been broken down, and of +later almanacs and calendars there is no end. Among the miniature books, +the collection of which is much favoured now, are some very tiny +almanacs, like the beautiful specimens of such a calendar given in Fig. +80, produced actual size, shown open and closed. This miniature almanac +is printed on satin and is full of pleasing little pictures. It is the +work of a French artist early in the nineteenth century, the pictures +and their descriptions and the monthly calendars occupying alternate +pages. The binding is of mother-o'-pearl, bound in ormolu and richly +gilt and engraved. Some similar calendars in tiny leather bindings, +beautifully tooled and ornamented in gold, are also collectable. + + +The Writing Table. + +The writing table usually occupies an honoured place in the library. It +may be a massive table of oak or a simple writing desk venerated on +account of the great literary works which have been written upon it. It +is no uncommon thing to read of large sums paid for a writing desk on +which the manuscript of a famous book has been penned, and some of the +writing tables upon which deeds of historical fame have been signed have +gained a reputation and a money value out of all proportion to their +curio or antiquarian merits. Not long ago the late King Edward presented +to the Commonwealth of Australia the table on which the great Charter +was signed, together with the inkstand and pen used on that occasion. +Those will be relics for future generations to value. + +The table appointments are among the collectable curios of the library, +and prominent among these is the inkstand. Inkstands find their +prototypes in the inkhorns of the scribe; and throughout the generations +which have provided curios for twentieth-century collectors there have +been fresh supplies in silver, pewter, Sheffield plate, copper, bronze, +iron, wood, china, and brass. Very beautiful indeed are some of the old +inkstands in their separate vase-like attachments. The ink-well was +formerly accompanied by a sand box or a pounce caster, in modern days +superseded by a second ink-well. The sand casters for sprinkling pounce +or sand upon newly written pages were a necessity before the days of +blotting paper. Perhaps some day blotters, blotting pads, and the like, +may become collectable curios! + +Collectors of old china are familiar with the rare boxes, egg-cup-like +in form, made by Richard Chaffers, of Liverpool, the blue and white +decoration, the name of the potter in the narrowed portion of the box +being characteristic of what was for a long time known as "Dick's +Pepperbox." It was, however, intended for a pounce box, the pounce or +pumice being a fine powder of the cuttle-fish bone, afterwards giving +the name to the pounce paper or transparent tracing material. Of the +inkstands to be seen in our museums there are many dating from almost +prehistoric times; their variety may be instanced by mention of one in +the Berlin Museum, an Egyptian curio said to be 3,400 years old, below +the ink compartments being a case for holding reed pens. + +In early days before even well-to-do people could read and write the +scribe found a ready occupation. The materials he used were carried +about in a writing case of metal, and among such curios are writing +cases which were used in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They +were often the work of the craftsmen of Mesopotamia, who were clever +artists in metal, and the work they performed came to Europe through +Syria. The example shown in Fig. 81 is the work of Mahmud, the son of +Sonkor, of Baghdad, and is dated 1281. This beautiful specimen may be +seen in the British Museum. + +The implements the scribe used changed as time went on, for parchment +was used quite early in the East. Writing was introduced into Spain by +the Moors in the tenth century, although writing paper was not made in +England until the fifteenth century. + +[Illustration: FIG. 79.--OLD COIN TESTER.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 80.--MINIATURE SOUVENIR ALMANAC.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 81.--ANCIENT WRITING SET.] + +The evolution of the pen has been slow, for the use of quills continues +still in some Government offices, and quills are still supplied to +readers in the British Museum Reading Room. The old-fashioned quill pens +were in days gone by shaped with a small knife made specially for that +purpose. Indeed, it is to the quill pen that we are indebted for our +"pen" knives, which have long been put to other uses. It was not +every one who was expert in cutting a pen neatly and making it write +well. Consequently an instrument was made for that purpose, known as the +quill-pen cutter. These cutters are now and then met with in old desks, +where they have lain unused for many years. + +Quill-pen making was an important industry until the invention of the +steel pen, and the quality of the quill was a matter of importance to +the scribe. In a trader's circular dated 1820 there is notice of the +Royal Appointment of a Liverpool maker, who was authorized to exercise +and enjoy all the rights, profits, privileges, and advantages of his +appointment of Pen Cutter and Quill Dresser to His Majesty King George +IV. In the same circular it is stated that the quill pens supplied were +of varying qualities, secured from the swan, raven, goose, turkey, crow, +and duck. + +Sealing correspondence was a necessity before gummed envelopes were +invented. Then sealing-wax was in daily use on the writing table, and +the signet ring or seal was requisitioned. The outfit of a library table +would scarcely be complete without wax, wafer irons, and seals. One of +the curios found now and then in old desks is a little cutting +instrument useful in removing seals or opening letters which had been +sealed. In the days before penny postage letters were sent carriage +forward, and the postage which had to be paid on the receipt of letters +from a distance was a heavy tax on those who had many friends and much +correspondence. + +The penalty of being the recipient of much correspondence may, perhaps, +have been lightened by the wording of the seal; for many old letter +seals conveyed sentimental messages which to the receiver from that +particular sender might have meant much. The following is a selection of +the characteristic sentiments of the day: "Break the seal, read the +letter, and keep the secret"; "You have a loyal friend"; and "Life is +naught without a friend." We cannot tell what was the result of sending +a letter bearing such a seal legend as:-- + + "Mine is a heart that loveth thee; + So, ladylove, do thou love me." + +Collectors' hobbies now and then are increased by the introduction of +something entirely new, something never known before, and the world +rejoices over a genuine novelty. The cynic declares that there is +nothing new under the sun, but the introduction of the penny postage in +1840, at the instigation of Rowland Hill, laid the foundation to stamp +collecting, which has become the most popular of all collectors' +hobbies. The philatelist is found in every civilized country, and the +collection of postage stamps, used and unused, grows apace. A bundle of +old letters in entire envelopes, posted forty or fifty years ago from +one of the British Colonies, discovered when ransacking an old library, +will probably prove the most valuable relic of the past found in it. + + + + +XII + +THE SMOKER'S CABINET + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SMOKER'S CABINET + + Old pipes--Pipe racks--Tobacco boxes--Smokers' tongs and + stoppers--Snuff boxes and rasps. + + +The slave of the pipe and the moderate smoker of years gone by have left +behind them relics in nearly every home. Such curios are found when +pulling down old houses, and clearing out rubbish heaps; and even when +making excavations in the vicinity of once occupied ground remains left +behind by smokers of olden times are discovered. + +Many are marked as curios on account of their curious forms; others have +been regarded as such because their uses have become obsolete, and some +because of their great beauty and the costliness of the materials of +which they are made. + +The collectable curios of the smoker's cabinet consist of clay pipes, +varying from the earliest form known to the later types not far removed +from the modern clays still smoked by workmen; of pipes of curious forms +and quaintly carved bowls; and the Eastern pipes, which look more like +show pieces in their size and forms than any pipe made for actual use. +The curios include tobacco jars, spill cups, and ash trays; and there +are also brass and copper spittoons and pipe racks. An old smoker's desk +often contains odd curios, such as the one-time common pipe-stoppers, so +many of which were made by Birmingham "toy-makers" in the eighteenth +century. + + +Old Pipes. + +When tobacco was first introduced into this country, and smoking was +taught to those whose descendants in countless numbers were destined to +worship at the shrine of my Lady Nicotine on British soil, the pipe was +brought over too; for tobacco and the tobacco pipe are inseparable, +although the pipe shares its popularity with cigars and cigarettes. + +There are few records of early experiments in the modelling and baking +of local clays by pipe makers; it was, however, soon discovered that +Broseley clay was most suitable for the tobacco pipe, and there are +pipes known to have been made at Broseley in the seventeenth century. +The flat heels of the early pipes were useful in that pipes could then +be laid down on the table. Then in the reign of James II an advance was +made by the spur-like projection of the bowl, which was found to be +convenient for the purpose of branding with the initials of the maker or +his trade mark, and there are many examples of old marks, some of which +are very curious, a not uncommon form being a punning rebus on the +maker's name; thus we have a gauntlet, used by a man named Gauntlet. + +The earlier forms of clay pipes gradually gave way to the long-stemmed +"churchwardens," which in course of time were again superseded by pipes +with short stems. The meerschaum in its day had many followers, and some +of the curiosities of the smoker's cabinet (the term "cabinet" is used +here in a figurative rather than a realistic sense) are those +elaborately carved specimens of meerschaum, that remarkably light +material that lends itself so well to the carver's art. + + +Pipe Racks. + +There appear to have been two distinct forms of racks--those used for +cleaning or rebaking clay pipes, and the racks on which they were +stored. The pipe rack was originally a wrought-iron frame upon which +dirty clay pipes were stoved in a brick oven and restored to their +original freshness. The stoving of pipes was a common practice not only +in taverns and public clubs but in private houses in the days when long +clay pipes were served to the guests, and a bowl of punch was placed +before them--it was thus that convivial spirits enjoyed themselves in +time gone by. + +Now and then these old pipe racks are met with in some outhouse or +attic, but they are getting very scarce, for most of them appear to have +found their way into the scrap heap of the old-metal dealer. Some of the +racks intended for the storage of pipes and not for baking them were +exceedingly decorative, the ornamental sides terminating with acorn +knobs made of cast lead. + + +Tobacco Boxes. + +It seems natural to suppose that the need of a suitable receptacle for +tobacco would early be felt. Many of the old tobacco boxes--those for +storage purposes--were made of lead or pewter. Lead was found to be cool +and was also used as an appropriate lining for boxes made of other +materials. Jars soon came into vogue, and there are quite ancient +specimens, especially the old japanned boxes, ornamented with figures in +gilt. + +There is, of course, a vast difference between the storage jar and the +smaller box carried about by the smoker much in the same way as the +pouch is now used. Many still prefer metal to other materials, and it is +no uncommon thing to see brass and steel boxes in use in industrial +districts. Few, however, excepting modern replicas of the antique, are +decorated in the way the old Dutch tobacco boxes of brass were in the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is not very clear why so many +of them were engraved with scriptural subjects, for there does not +appear to be much connection between biblical history and the pipe! +Engravings of scenes depicting Noah and the Flood are common, the +incongruity of the clothing shown being often commented upon; one writer +upon the subject referred to the engravings on one of these tobacco +boxes as being ornamented with Jewish characters wearing knee breeches +of English type, talking to Dutch frauen. Historical portraits are not +uncommonly met with on these quaint boxes, and quite a number of battle +scenes have been engraved. Such metal work has been gathered together +in several museums, and in the British Museum there is a fine collection +of various shapes, some oval, others long and narrow, and some almost +square. The brass tobacco box illustrated in Fig. 83 has a medallion +portrait of Frederick the Great in the centre, such embossed subjects +being very popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, both in +England and in Holland, although Dutch artists gave preference to +scriptural subjects, many fine examples of which are to be seen in our +museums. Fortunately there are many really curious specimens obtainable +at a moderate cost. + +[Illustration: FIG. 82.--THREE CURIOUS PIPE-STOPPERS.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 83.--BRASS TOBACCO BOX. + +(_In the British Museum._)] + + +Smokers' Tongs and Stoppers. + +Curious little ember tongs were formerly used by smokers for taking up +hot embers or ashes with which to light their pipes. Of these there are +several varieties, most of them of polished steel, cut and chased. In +the eighteenth century similar tongs were used for holding cigars; some +were fitted with small knives, and a few of the earlier examples +included tinder boxes. Not infrequently one end of the handle terminated +in a tobacco stopper. + +Stoppers, were, however, destined soon to become an independent and +important smokers' accessory. They were made of different materials, +including brass, steel, bone, and ivory, to some being added a pick for +clearing out the bowl of a pipe. Many curious handles were modelled, +among the varieties being some representing soldiers in armour of the +time of James I. There is one favourite type representing Charles I, +crowned, and wearing the collar of the Garter, and another a bust of +Oliver Cromwell. In one example a farm labourer works a flail, in +another a milkmaid goes a-milking with her pail. There are many +varieties of a hand holding a pipe, of jockeys and prize-fighters, and +of St. George and the Dragon. + +The three stoppers illustrated in Fig. 82 are quite exceptional +specimens, illustrating, however, the kind of stopper which collectors +should keep a keen look out for. These examples are in the British +Museum along with a few others of seventeenth and eighteenth-century +manufacture, having striking characteristics. One is described as having +a human figure at the butt, and at the other end a crowned head. The +third example is an historic souvenir, having been made, as the +inscription on the stopper indicates, from the royal oak which sheltered +Charles II, by Mr. George Plaxton, at one time "parson of the parish." + +In the Taunton Castle Museum there is an exceptionally beautiful stopper +made of ivory inscribed:-- + +"NOW . MAN . WITH . MAN . IS . SO . VNJVST . +THAT . ONE . CAN . SCARCE . TELL . WHO . TO . TRVST." + +There are similar stoppers in private collections. The inscription on +one at South Petherton reads:-- + +"THE . FAYREST . MAYD . THAT . DID . BAYR . LIFE . +FOR . LOVE . TO . MAN . BECAME . A . WIFE." + + +Snuff Boxes and Rasps. + +Snuff-taking has been a habit associated with smoking tobacco from quite +early days. The preparation of snuff was formerly achieved at home, and +consequently there sprang up the need of rasps, which were frequently +carried about in the pocket, many of the cases being very ornamental. +They varied in size, but the rasp cases usually held a plug or twist of +tobacco from which the snuff was made. + +There are several fine old snuff rasps in the Victoria and Albert +Museum, one large rasp measuring 15 in. in length; its case, which is of +walnut and extremely decorative, is attributed to a Dutch carver who +executed it in the second half of the seventeenth century. There is also +a small iron rasp in a case of teak wood, which is inlaid with rosewood, +ivory, and tortoiseshell, the rasp measuring about 8 in. in length. An +eighteenth-century French rasp of boxwood is carved in low relief; on +one side a pair of doves is represented, under the picture being the +legend, "_Unis jusqu'a la mort_." On the other side there is a man +blowing a horn with the legend, "_La fidelite est perdue_," around which +is a rope-like frame supporting two cornucopiæ. Another curious variety +of snuff rasp is made to run on wheels. When snuff-making became an +established trade, and the need for snuff rasps to be carried was not so +great, the decoration of snuff boxes became more ornate. + +It was in the days of Queen Anne that the height of the glory of the +snuffer was reached; it was, however, during the reigns of the Georges +that so many beautiful boxes were made. There were boxes carved out of +a piece of wood, others of bone, papier-maché, and metal; indeed, all +the metals seem to have been used, for among the curiosities of old +snuff boxes are those made of iron, copper, brass, silver, and gold. +Some of the more costly were enriched with diamonds and precious stones, +and with tiny miniature paintings and beautiful Wedgwood cameos. + +In the days when snuff-taking was a commoner practice than it is now, +the ornamental snuff box was the chosen gift to men of fame. Kings, +princes, and the nobility received gold and jewelled snuff boxes on +occasions when in more modern days they would have been given a scroll +of vellum in a golden casket. + +Many provincial museums contain excellent collections of smokers' +requisites. In the handbook of Welsh antiquities published in connection +with the National Museum of Wales, in Cardiff, there are allusions to +several interesting specimens, the writer of the guide quoting some +lines penned by a sixteenth-century poet, who extolled tobacco thus:-- + + "Tobacco engages + Both sexes, all ages-- + The poor as well as the wealthy; + From the Court to the cottage, + From childhood to dotage, + Both those that are sick and the healthy." + + + + +XIII + +LOVE TOKENS AND LUCKY EMBLEMS + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +LOVE TOKENS AND LUCKY EMBLEMS + + Amulets--Horse trappings--Emblems of luck--Lovespoons--Glass + curios. + + +The collector rarely troubles about attempting to solve matters of +dispute, and cares little to enter into argumentative discussions in +reference to the supposed purposes of the curios he collects, or the +different uses with which they have been associated. He does not inquire +too deeply into the faiths and beliefs which may have been held and +revered by his ancestors when he puts in his cabinet some curiosity +which may have been regarded almost with reverential feelings and +handled with superstitious regard by its original possessor. The more +thoughtful man does, however, pay some tribute to their early +associations. Our museums are filled with such relics, with delightfully +carved reliquaries, triptychs, and marvellously carved beads which in +their religious use as rosaries have been looked upon as something more +than mere specimens of the carver's art. There are mysteries in beliefs +which have been held dear in the past which are not understood by +succeeding generations. + +It is difficult to understand in the present day the deep-seated faith +in amulets and charms, which were thought to have brought about what +would now be regarded as curious coincidences, or to place reliance upon +the babbling utterances of some old crone who posed as a witch or a +fortune-teller. Yet among such old-world stories there are germs of +truth although misapplied. The emblems, amulets, and charms so +implicitly believed in a few centuries ago are objects numbered among +collectable curios, valued even in this prosaic age not only for their +intrinsic worth and antiquarian interest, but for the so-called magic +influences they were supposed to possess. + +There is something more understandable about love tokens, for we can +tell their purpose, and indeed to-day, stripped of the charm which was +often supposed to go with them, love tokens are given, received, and +valued just as much as they were in the past. + + +Amulets. + +The amulet, which in its realistic form is regarded as an antiquity to +be preserved with care, was usually regarded either as a charm against +disease, accident, or misfortune, or as something the possession of +which would bring good luck. The efficacy of amulets was believed in by +the most cultured and scientific peoples in the past, for it was an +article of belief in Egypt and Chaldea. The Jews had regard for their +phylacteries, and the Greeks and Romans had their amulets. The image of +Thor was an amulet peculiar to the old Norsemen; and in Britain we have +had many examples. + +[Illustration: FIG. 84.--COLLECTION OF HARNESS AMULETS AND TEAM BELLS. + +(_In the possession of Mr. Charles Wayte, of Edenbridge._)] + +Although not necessarily objects to be worn, no doubt charms usually +took the form of something which could be suspended, for the origin of +the word coming to us through the Latin has been traced to an Arabic +word, signifying a pendant. In the early Christian Church the fish was +worn as a symbol or charm, and in many parts of rural England to-day +amulets are kept, and even charms, as preventives against disease. Men +and women buy so-called amulets from the jewellers' shops at the present +time, and wear them on their watch chains or bangles, and round their +necks; but the faith reposed in such charms by the educated classes in +this country may be dismissed as a myth, for few really understand their +true significance, or place any real reliance upon such fanciful relics +of a former age--an age of superstition, when people blindly clutched at +any mysterious protective power or emblem. + + +Horse Trappings. + +Among the commoner emblems of good luck handed down from the far-off +past, are the brass amulets worn on horse trappings even to-day. A set +of brasses consists of a face brass, taking chief place of prominence on +the horse's forehead; two ear brasses, which are seen behind the ears; +ten martingale brasses, worn on the breast; and three brasses suspended +from straps on each of the shoulders. These amulets were primarily worn +to keep off the "evil eye," and thus protect the horse and its rider or +its owner from calamity and harm. The brasses were varied in design, +some of the more important being developments of the crescent moon. +Some were made to imitate the sun with its pointed rays, others the +Catherine wheel; the Kentish horse, too, a relic of Saxon days, has been +frequently used, and there is the lotus flower of Egyptian origin. There +are Moorish and Buddhist symbols, and many curious developments which +have gone far astray from their original types. The agriculturist is +still superstitious, and does not like to lessen the number of these +somewhat weighty brasses suspended from his horse trappings. For +purposes of utility they are useless; they remain, however, a connecting +link with the superstitions of the past, and a collection of such +curious objects is of extreme interest. In Fig. 84 is shown an +exceptionally fine collection got together by Mr. Wayte, of Edenbridge, +who collects many such things. + + +Emblems of Luck. + +There seems to be a distinctive difference between the amulets which +were protectors against harm and those which are emblems of good +fortune. Perhaps hovering between the two may be classed such curios as +those which tradition has held to be a preservative of luck, like "the +Luck of Eden Hall," that wonderful goblet preserved with such great care +in its charming case of _cour boulli_. In this category are the numerous +gifts from friend to friend having no special emblematic value, but +which were frequently handed over with such sayings as: "I give you this +for luck," and "May good luck go with you." The wish and implied virtue +in the charm has about as much value in it as the wish playfully and +unbelievingly uttered by the twentieth-century maiden at the wishing +well to-day. + +There is still, however, an undeniable lingering belief in the +mysterious value in the possession of an emblem of luck, one of the best +known and commonly used to-day being the horseshoe, preferably, +according to old tradition, a cast shoe found and nailed up over the +doorway or in some prominent place. It is generally believed that the +horseshoe carries with it good luck on account of its form, which +resembles the crescent moon, a notorious symbol in the days of the +Crusaders, already referred to as being an important feature in the +amulets or charms on horse trappings--such is the curious mixture of +scepticism and superstitious faith met with to-day! + + +Lovespoons. + +The collection of Welsh lovespoons in the National Museum of Wales, +several of which are illustrated in Fig. 85, is quite unique. Dr. Hoyle, +the Director of the Museum, in his admirable description of the case in +which these pretty little objects are shown, explains that they are +arranged to show the evolution of the lovespoon from the normal spoon. +Such lovespoons might, a few years ago, have been seen in many Welsh +homes, where they hung as things of ornament and sentiment, for it is +said they were given in "spooning" days to the girl of his choice by the +lover. The handle is of course the appropriate field of decoration, the +double bowl being symbolic of "We two are one." The dated spoons were +mostly made in the middle of the eighteenth century. + + +Glass Curios. + +Some of the most pleasing love tokens are those made at Nailsea in +Somerset, and in Sunderland. The commoner kinds, chiefly made at the +latter place, were known as sailors' love tokens. They took the form of +rolling-pins, which were evidently intended for ornament and not for +use. A bow of ribbon was tied round the end of the pin by which the +roller could be hung up. These glass rolling-pins were covered over with +sentimental mottoes, generally accompanied by a ship, a typical feature +of the decorations commonly used. Some of these little mementoes given +away by sailors were of white semi-opaque glass, others were brilliantly +coloured. + +Nailsea glass works were noted for the Italian influence shown in the +colour effects produced in them. Among other objects made at those +famous glass works were flasks and bottles for wines and spirits in +greens, browns, and blues, to which were added in smaller quantities red +and yellow. Other trinkets of an ornamental character were glass tobacco +pipes, bells, and coach horns. There were also Nailsea walking sticks +made of twisted glass, and many curious cups. Most of these were given +for luck, especially as love tokens when sailors were about to set out +on a voyage, the superstition attached to the gift being that if the +glass pin were broken it was a sign that the vessel in which the +giver had sailed had been wrecked. Hence it was that a ribbon was +securely attached, and the gift hung up out of harm's reach. + +[Illustration: FIG. 85.--OLD WELSH LOVE SPOONS. + +(_In the National Museum of Wales._)] + +In association with glass rolling-pins and other love tokens there are +many sundry curios which from the mottoes upon them were evidently given +with a similar purpose. Even objects of metal and brass were frequently +inscribed with loving reminders of the donor. The pleasing little +trinket and patch boxes of enamels and glass, referred to in another +chapter, were given from sentimental motives as evidenced by their +inscriptions. Covers of pocket books and tobacco pouches were covered +over with similar legends, like a delightful beadwork tobacco pouch in +the Taunton Castle Museum, on which is the motto or sentiment, "LOVE ME +FOR I AM THINE, 1631," wrought by a seventeenth-century needleworker. + +Similar mottoes are found on the little pincushions formerly carried in +the capacious pockets of women of olden time, sometimes wrought in +needlework and at others in beads. + + + + +XIV + +THE MARKING OF TIME + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE MARKING OF TIME + + Clocks--Watches--Watch keys--Watch stands. + + +The early marking of time was simple enough, for we are told that the +Arabs, by driving a spear or a staff into the sand of the desert, told +the time of day. The shadow of the sun roughly gave those who were +familiar with astronomy the lay of the land and the time, approximately. +When the dial and the gnomon were understood, dialling became a popular +science, and ere long the sundial on the church tower, in a public +place, or in a private garden, told the time. Then came the marking of +time by pocket dials--an advance which foreshadowed the watch which was +to come. + +The pocket dial was soon followed by mechanical clocks, the clock watch, +and the more delicate work of the watchmaker. The watch has become more +accurate in its marking of time by the introduction of machinery in its +manufacture; and it is cheapened by competition, so that now every one +for a mere trifle can carry in his pocket a watch by means of which he +can tell accurately the hour of day, as Shakespeare has it in "As You +Like It":-- + + "And then he drew a dial from his poke; + And looking on it with lack-lustre eye, + Says, very wisely, 'It is ten o'clock; + Thus we may see,' quoth he, 'how the world wags.'" + +Some further references to the sundial will be found in Chapter XVII, +the sundial being one of the accompaniments of the old-world garden. + + +Clocks. + +In "Chats on Old Copper and Brass" some mention is made of old clocks, +and of the watch which grew in beauty and fineness of workmanship as it +evolved from the watch-clock and the still earlier lantern and other old +clocks, which were gradually introduced to supersede or supplement the +earlier sundials. Very remarkable indeed are some of these household +curios. The very movement of the clock, with its pendulum swinging to +and fro and the loud tick which can be heard all over the room, gives a +sort of venerated respect for the "grandfather," with its massive and +often richly carved or inlaid oaken or mahogany case, making it an +important piece of furniture in the room. + +[Illustration: FIG. 86.--FINE GOTHIC FRENCH CLOCK. + +(_In the collection of W. Egan & Sons, Ltd., Cork._)] + +The Cromwellian lantern clock was beautiful in its way, and it may be +regarded as the earliest type of commonly used domestic clocks, most of +which were made at a later period than is denoted by the name of +Cromwellian. They are, however, of a good respectable age, and are now +really valuable household antiquities. The lantern clock may be +regarded as the ancestor of the "grandfather," the works of which were +protected by a wooden case. The evolution from the earlier type is quite +easy to follow, for the wooden hood to protect the clock on the bracket +shelf was added; then came the framed head, which was glazed, and +eventually the lower case covering the weights. + +Much has been written about "grandfathers" and the smaller variety +commonly designated "grandmothers." The dials of the earlier specimens +are of brass and have only the hour hand, an onward step being marked +when the minute finger was added. The mechanical arrangement by which +the days of the week and the month were indicated was a happy addition, +although some would, doubtless, regard them as somewhat unnecessary. The +collector of antiques is likely to be imposed upon unless he is +acquainted with the technical construction of both works and frame or +case, for it is not an uncommon thing to fit in a modern antique case a +set of old works. + +The timepiece is an innovation of comparatively recent days. From the +first it became the central ornament on the mantelpiece, and many +artists were employed in providing suitable designs and combining +various materials to produce clocks in keeping with prevailing styles of +furniture and decoration. The French clockmakers became experts as +designers of the smaller and more varied cases of mantelpiece clocks, +many fine examples of the Empire period ranking as art treasures as well +as curios. + +Fig. 86 represents an exceptionally fine example of a Gothic French +clock, beautifully modelled, and in excellent condition. Some of the +gilt clocks and side vases to match were bought as mantelpiece +ornaments, rather than for their merit as timekeepers, although the best +makers always put in reliable works--there were no such works as those +made by machinery and sold so cheaply to-day! + +The timepieces of early Victorian days are scarcely antiques, and few of +them are treasured as such, although undoubtedly curious. + + +Watches. + +The first step towards watches as we understand them was the manufacture +of pocket clocks (many of which show Dutch influence in design), some of +the cases of which were very beautiful. The watches which followed in +due course were at first without glasses, and for the better protection +of the works and of the delicate engravings and ornamentation of the +backs and dials loose cases of metal or shagreen were made. Some of them +were highly ornamental, little studs of gold or silver being arranged in +geometrical and floral patterns on the exteriors. Two very pretty +examples of such cases are shown in Fig. 88. + +[Illustration: FIG. 87--SPECIMENS OF OLD WATCH KEYS.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 88.--TWO ANTIQUE WATCH CASES.] + +Many of the watch backs were chased and perforated and beautifully +enamelled; the dials were covered with painted miniatures, and gold +watches were enriched with jewels. From Switzerland and Nuremberg come +many choice examples; but there were clever watchmakers in England too, +among them John Stevens, of Colchester, a sixteenth-century +watchmaker noted for his pierced and engraved brass-gilt cases. + +Classical figures and designs showing Dutch influence became popular +late in the seventeenth century; then fashions changed, and the Court of +the Emperors of France exercised an influence over art in this and other +countries, and watch cases and other lesser objects were made more or +less in harmony. At one time curiously shaped cases were the fashion; at +another octagonal watches, such as were made in the seventeenth century +by Edmund Bull, of Fleet Street, who is said to have made an elliptic +silver watch engraved all over with minute scriptural subjects. + +The collection of watches is a hobby indulged in by but few; there are, +however, many single examples included in household curios, and not +infrequently several handsomely engraved old watch cases are seen +exhibited in the modern glass-topped curio tables so fashionable in +twentieth-century drawing-rooms--now and then the interest in them being +increased by the musical bells of the repeaters, many of which were made +a century or more ago. + + +Watch Keys. + +Keyless watches have been invented within the memory of most of us; it +is obvious, therefore, that old watches were supplied with old keys, +many of which were curious in form. The collector in search of a small +group of collectable curios finds the watch key an excellent variety on +which to specialize. When larger clocks were supplemented by the pocket +watch, the loose key with which to wind it up naturally took the form of +the larger clock keys. Such keys soon became more ornamental, for they +were either carried in the pocket or attached to a chatelaine or bunch +of keys; many of the bows were modelled on the pattern of other keys on +the bunch. + +In the accompanying illustration, Fig. 87, some little idea may be +formed of the early developments. The three keys in the upper row are of +the clock-winder type, showing the gradual improvement in their +formation. Then came a development of the metal keys, mostly of brass, +the engraving and modelling of the key itself being improved, the +ornamentation being supplemented by enamelling. The watch key ultimately +became very ornate, for the more precious metals were gradually +introduced, and rich enamels, rare gems and stones, and Wedgwood cameos +were added. + +Pinchbeck metal was very much used for watch keys, the fob seals +remaining in fashion until knee breeches went out. Some of the French +keys are extremely decorative, and many cut and polished steel keys are +worth collecting. It is said that Switzerland is one of the happy +hunting-grounds of the watch-key collector, but there are many curio +shops, both on the Continent and in this country, where fancy keys can +be bought still at reasonable prices. In some localities special designs +and metal have been made. Thus it is said that in Holland the silver +keys of large size were long favoured, and many of these are still on +sale. Another special feature about these curios is that makers at one +time specialized on trade emblems, and it is quite possible to get +together an interesting collection representing the attributes of +musicians, butchers, bakers, and horticulturists, one signifying the +latter industry being shown in Fig. 87, that on the left-hand corner of +the lower row being fashioned in the form of a spade and a rake. + + +Watch Stands. + +There are some very quaint old wood watch stands used chiefly as the +temporary home of the watch at night, although some seem to have been +permanently used by those who possessed a second watch. Some of the wood +carvings were covered with old gilt; others were relieved in colours. +Some were classic in design; others were like the little French clocks +of the Empire period. Some were shaped like musical instruments, and +others of more elaborate forms of decoration represent Mercury and +Hercules supporting the watch stand. Some of the most beautiful are made +of French lacquer and ornamented in the Vernis Martin style. To these +may be added watch stands of marble, and curious inlays, of papier-maché +and japanned wares, and some of brass and bronze. + + + + +XV + +MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS + + Early examples--Whistles and pipes--Violins and harps. + + +There are few homes without some old musical instruments, indicating +that at one time or other one or more members of the family have been +musical. There is a sadness about the discovery of a long-neglected +instrument, telling of the breaking up of the old home or of an absent +one whose instrument has been cherished in memory of happy moments when +harmonious sounds and beautiful music were drawn from the now +long-neglected piano, harp, or violin. To its owner a simple flute or +bugle is probably of as much value as an old piano, although the more +important instrument may be more valuable as a curio and antique. There +are some old instruments which increase in value, such, for instance, as +violins made years ago by masters of constructional art, for they have +become mellow with age, and, like the bells of some old parish church, +now give out rich and yet soft notes when handled by a master hand. The +story of the development of the piano from the very early prototypes is +an enchanting theme to the lover of music, for there is a far remove +from the modern pianoforte, and still newer player piano to the +virginal, harpsichord, and spinet which may occasionally be found among +the curios of the household. + + +Early Examples. + +In the eleventh century, when musical notation came into being, a +monochord was used to teach singing. The clavichord followed in due +course, and by a rapid process of development regals, organs, and +virginals evolved. The virginal, although distinct, was associated with +the spinet, which with the later harpsichord may be found in houses +which have been but little disturbed since the middle of the eighteenth +century. It was in that century that the piano came, but not until it +was well advanced, for in an old playbill of Covent Garden Theatre, +published in 1767, it was announced that "Miss Brickler will sing a +favourite song from _Judith_, accompanied by Mr. Dibdin on a new +instrument called the piano forte." Of such instruments and of earlier +types there are many fine examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum at +South Kensington, in the Royal Scottish Museum, and in the Crosby-Brown +Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In Fig. +89 is seen a beautiful spinet in excellent condition. + + +Whistles and Pipes. + +It is said by the exponents of artistic furnishing and decoration that +no home can be complete without music, for it gives an atmosphere of +art which nothing else can impart; and certainly a collection of +household curios cannot be complete without some musical instrument, +although but a humble example. It may be a moot point among collectors +whether the insignificant whistle or primitive call can be regarded as +sufficiently musical to rank in this category. It is certain, however, +that it is one of the commonest of sound producers; if there is a boy in +the home there is almost sure to be a whistle in the house. Few trouble +about the scientific explanation of the sound produced by this common +instrument, but experts tell us that the sound comes because +condensations occur by the collision of air against the cutting edge +placed in its path. Of antique whistles there are many types, those +shown in Fig. 90 being the most frequently met with. The one marked "D" +is said to be an attempt to increase the volume of sound by the +extension of a cutting edge. A double sound is produced by that marked +"F," whereas "A" is of the more familiar type, the example illustrated +being an ivory whistle used upwards of a hundred years ago. + +From the whistle came the tin pipe capable of producing tunes in the +hands of a skilful player. The whistle and pipe were in olden times +associated with coaching days and inns. At one time it was customary for +a whistle to be attached to the handles of spoons used on inn tables. +Thirsty travellers blew the whistle when refreshment was required, and +from that custom we get the common expression, "You may whistle for it." +The horn, too, was a favourite instrument, and very necessary in days +gone by, when it served many useful purposes. + +The horn is probably the most ancient of all wind instruments. It was +used at the Jewish feast of the Atonement, and the Romans used it for +signalling purposes, their infantry carrying circular bronze horns. +There is an interesting popular fable that horns were first introduced +into Western Europe by the Crusaders; but that is incorrect, in that +bronze horns have been found in prehistoric barrows. The horn was +commonly used for summoning the folk mote in Saxon times, and in quite +early days horns sounded in English homes on the arrival of guests. The +hunting horn was found in every house of importance in mediæval times, +and in the sixteenth century it had become semicircular. Great composers +testify to the value of the horn in instrumental music, Handel and +Mozart writing pieces specially adapted for its use. + +Some very quaint old flutes are found among household instruments, the +origin of the primitive pipe or flute being lost in the mists of +antiquity. Among household curios old flutes beautifully inlaid stowed +away in antique leather cases are interesting relics of former days. + +[Illustration: FIG. 89. OLD SPINET. + +(_In the collection of Mr. Phillips, of Hitchin._)] + + +Violins and Harps. + +To many the chief charm of old instruments is found in the delicious +tones and notes produced by an old violin, which, if the work of a +well-known maker, commands a fancy price; among the most valuable being +an authentic Stradivarius. Many old English violins were made in Soho +in the eighteenth century, for that was the centre of the trade, +although in still earlier days violin makers worked in Piccadilly. In +Soho, too, horns, trumpets, drums, and guitars were made. The guitar, +but in slightly altered form, was the popular home instrument played +upon by Greek and Roman maidens. Many of the earlier European lutes were +in reality guitars. Some beautifully inlaid specimens are occasionally +met with. Of these there are many varieties in the Victoria and Albert +Museum; among them there is a guitar lyre, on which is a mask of Apollo, +an exact imitation of the lyre of the Ancients, which was formerly used +by a member of the Prince Regent's Band at the Royal Aquarium, Brighton. + +There is one other instrument which ranks high among the musical +instruments of olden time found in British homes. It is the harp, heard +to perfection in the drawing-room and the concert hall--an instrument +upon which such beautiful melodies can be produced. There are many +pretty legends about the harp heard with such delight and yet +superstitious awe by the Vikings, who, on their return from Britain, +told of the mysterious shores where mermaids of great beauty were said +to rise from the seas, and, sitting upon the foam-lashed rocks, played +upon their harps music of sweetest sound. American collectors to-day pay +large sums for genuine Irish harps, which differ somewhat in size and +form from those upon which Welsh maidens played. There are still a few +such ancient instruments to be met with in Ireland and Wales. + +Of minor instruments there is not much to say--all are intensely +interesting when they carry with them memories of former owners, for +they are veritable mementoes of home amusements, pleasures, and +delights. + + + + +XVI + +PLAY AND SPORT + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +PLAY AND SPORT + + Dolls--Toys--Old games--Outdoor amusements--Relics of sport. + + +It would appear that there have been amusements at all periods of the +world's history, and that everywhere work and play have gone hand in +hand together. The occupations of the nursery have been an intermixture +of lessons and play; amusements, although not always of an elevating or +educative character, have for the most part tended to develop and form +the mind, as well as strengthen the body. Recreation has played an +important part in the upbringing of child and man, and when absent the +advance has been retarded. The youth of all ages has found time for +games and sports, which have enlivened the duties of manhood and +womanhood by physical and mental pleasures. Even as age creeps on, men +and women lessen the monotony of daily toil by indulging in indoor games +and outside sports, suitable to their age and inclinations. As few games +can be played or sport engaged in without accessories, it is not +surprising that many relics of the play and sport of past generations +are to be met with. + +Some of the appliances and apparatus which were acquired in the pursuit +of these pleasures have become of antiquarian value, for many of them +are curious and represent amusements almost forgotten. Others tell of +the steady survival of the oldest games and amusements, but show the +developments and alterations which have gone on in the methods of +playing or in the appliances which have been invented to enhance the +interest in those delights. These changes are seen more especially in +sports and games of skill. As an instance, we may take one of the great +manly sports, that of hunting game, a custom surviving from days when +this England of ours was a wild and uncultivated forest and swamp, full +of strange birds and many wild animals roamed therein. The flint-pointed +arrow of primitive man was but the beginning in the evolution of arms. +In the relics of these former plays and sports there is much to admire, +and many objects to collect. + +There is something very pathetic about the household relics of the +playroom and the nursery. Many little articles of clothing and valueless +toys and trinkets are retained by a fond mother years after her +offspring has grown up. They remind her of her early married life, and +very often of children who have played in the nursery but who never +lived to grow up. These pathetic relics have been carefully preserved +for at least one generation. Then their associations have been +forgotten, and those into whose hands they fall probably know nothing of +their origin; to them they are merely curios. A sympathetic feeling may +have induced a new owner to retain them for a little while longer, +although of no great intrinsic value; but oftener than not they have +been kept as connecting links between the old and the new, and thus they +have been handed on until their age alone would make them collectable +curios in this day of reverence for all things old! + +[Illustration: FIG. 90.--CURIOUS TYPES OF WHISTLES.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 91.--QUAINT OLD TOY. + +(_In the possession of Mr. Phillips, of Hitchin._)] + +There has been a remarkable sequence in the toys of children of all +generations, and of races far apart. The same games have been played, +and the same toys used. Now and then a child more careful than usual +preserves his or her toys when grown to man's or woman's estate; but +such collections are rare. There are some noted collections, however, +which have passed into the range of museum curios, grouped together as +representative of the period when they were played with--authentic +records of the playthings of that day. In Fig. 91 there is a remarkable +old toy now in the diversified collection of household curios and +antique furniture of Mr. Phillips, of the Manor House, Hitchin. + + +Dolls. + +Probably the commonest toy is the doll, which children have ever +regarded as the ideal plaything. The maternal instinct is strong in the +youngest girl, and dolls are often looked upon as something more than +mere toys. They are talked to, played with, and treated as if they were +human beings. Their realism, at first imagined, seems to have grown up +with their long use until a personality surrounds each one of the dolls +in the nursery. Now and then a quaint doll is treasured as having been +the plaything of more than one generation, especially so the old wooden +Dutch dolls, strong and lasting, which have in some instances been +handed on as playthings, almost as family heirlooms. + +The most famous collection of dolls played with by one child, and yet +dressed to cover almost every period of English history--a veritable +history of costume--is that famous collection in the London Museum, +consisting of dolls dressed by and for the late Queen Victoria, who, +doubtless, had unique opportunities of copying correctly the costumes of +the Court, and of others less high in social status, during the reigns +of the English sovereigns who had preceded her. + +Few, if any, can hope to possess such a representative collection; there +are many who can find, however, curiously dressed dolls which are very +helpful in learning something of local costumes and useful instructors +in research after the habits and occupations of people who may have +lived in places and districts little known to the present generation. + +Some children's toys are much older than they appear at first sight to +be, for many very similar playthings were found in the playrooms of boys +and girls who lived two thousand years ago. There are the dolls and +quaint little figures played with by Greek and Roman children. Among the +more familiar objects were little wooden tortoises, ducks, and pigs. +Some were cleverly carved out of wood, and the arms and legs of dolls +moved, much the same as the Dutch dolls of later days. Those children +had chariots and horses of metal much the same as children have leaden +soldiers now. They trundled hoops of bronze, in some of them bells being +placed in the centre, ringing as they ran along. Some of the toys of +these little Roman and Greek maidens and youths were very elaborate, and +must have belonged to the children of the wealthy, who, like modern +parents, gave presents to them on "name" days. + +Toys have always served the double purpose of amusement and education. +Years before kindergarten methods were adopted--although unknown, +probably, to parents--scientific and philosophic toys were doing good +work, and driving home elementary truths. There were curious cylindrical +mirrors, the inevitable kaleidoscope, and the water imps, an amusing +toy, for the imps, inserted in a bowl or bottle of water, bobbed about +in a curious way when the india-rubber cap which covered the neck was +pressed and manipulated by the fingers. The modern picture theatre, with +all its attractions to grown-up folks, was foreshadowed in the very +primitive magic lantern, which threw a cloudy disc and an almost +undiscernible picture, by the aid of an evil-smelling oil lamp, on an +old sheet hung up in the nursery. + + +Old Games. + +There are many curios reminding us of indoor games and winter amusements +now obsolete, and of the change which has gone on in games still played. +When we recall the number of new games which have been introduced during +the last quarter of a century, it is surprising how few have survived. +New games come and go, and their accessories are discarded as but toys +of the moment. Most of the popular games are those which have been +handed down throughout the ages, many of them of great antiquity, +especially scientific games and games of skill. Among these games, or +rather the apparatus for playing them, are often curios, for they are +quite different to and often more decorative than those used in playing +similar games to-day. We are accustomed to plain leather or wood chess +and draught boards and the regulation patterns of the men nowadays, but +formerly much time was expended in decorating and enriching chess boards +and men. The boards often served other purposes too, many being +beautifully inlaid and reversible; thus the older game boards were +fitted with slides for backgammon, provision being made for chess, +merelles, and fox and geese, the oak of which they were often made being +relieved with rich marqueterie (_tarsia_) of ebony, ivory, and silver. + +It is not often that a collection of old chessmen is found among +household curios, although it was not uncommon to discover among sundry +ivory carvings a few odd pieces which had been secured on account of +their beautiful carving. In India and China some very remarkable +chessmen have been produced. The origin of the game is lost in +antiquity, although it was played in the East at a very early period. It +is said to have been introduced into Spain from Arabia, and to have been +played by the Hindus more than a thousand years ago. It was certainly +known in this country before the Norman Conquest. Some few years ago a +very remarkable collection of chessmen, such as may be seen in isolated +sets or still more frequently represented by single pieces in cabinets +of old ivories, was dispersed under the hammer in a London saleroom. +There were Chinese sets in red and white, wonderful figures standing +upon concentric balls; antique Persian sets in cream-coloured ivory +decorated in colours and gold, kings and queens on elephants, knights on +horses, and bishops on camels; Burmese sets with royal personages seated +on chairs of state; and some very remarkable English porcelain, Wedgwood +ware, and Minton pottery sets. + +Several finds of Scandinavian chessmen, made, probably, in the twelfth +century, have been made in the island of Lewis. From these and other +sets met with in other places much has been learned about the evolution +in the game. + +The queen does not appear to have been introduced into the game until +the eleventh century. The castle has undergone many changes; its older +name of "rook" was derived from the Persian word _rokh_, a hero. No +doubt all the pieces were then carved personalities, well understood +from king to pawn. In the modern forms of Staunton and London Club +patterns the knight alone retains its semblance in the horse's head--a +poor substitute for the beautifully carved warrior on horseback seen in +some of the older sets. + +Draughts, or dames, is also a game of antiquity; and in the British +Museum there is a set said to date back to the Saxon period. Some of the +old boards are interesting relics, and the sets of carved draughtsmen, +now scarce, are beautiful works of art. + +Backgammon is one of the older kindred games, frequently played on the +interior of the chess board which was for that purpose marked with +twelve points or flèches in alternate colours. In this game dice were +used, and some of the old dice cups are very prettily decorated. + +Cribbage played with cards and a board is said to be essentially an +English game. Some very remarkable cribbage boards were made many years +ago, many of metal, others of wood and ivory; one exceptionally +interesting piece, a brass cribbage board, in the Victoria and Albert +Museum, is engraved: "MR. CHRISTR ELLIOTT AT WINBORROW GREEN, SUSSEX +1768." + +Cards, of which there are so many curious types among the old examples +found in many homes, were introduced into the West of Europe from the +East about the fourteenth century. At first they were hand drawn and +coloured, then printed from wood blocks, being subsequently printed from +blocks and plates engraved on the types which were gradually +standardized. Some very interesting collections of old cards have been +made, one of the most complete being that of Lady Charlotte Schreiber, +now in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. + +In the days when card playing was at its height many fine brass counter +trays and curious card trays were fashioned in brass and copper. Some of +these may very well be collected, and are suitable receptacles for old +metal counters, of which there are many varieties. Some of these +counters were made by the diesinkers who helped tradesmen to provide +themselves with token change, and they bear a striking resemblance to +the contemporary metallic currency. Others were chiefly hand engraved, +and often sold in small metal and silver boxes, those dating from the +time of Queen Anne being the most interesting. The most popular card +counters in the early days of the nineteenth century were brass copies +of the spade-ace gold guinea, which they closely resembled, and it is +feared, when gilt, were not infrequently palmed off as genuine gold. + + +Outdoor Amusements. + +The outdoor games practised when household curios were being fashioned +necessitated fewer accessories than such games do to-day, and many of +them were crude and obviously the work of amateurs. Yet the same games +were being played and possibly enjoyed as much, although the sport was +rougher! + +When we think of winter amusements in the past somehow we conjure up +pictures of hard frosts and crisp snow, although rain, damp, and fog +were probably frequent visitors in Old England. Some of the games can be +traced back to very early days--such, for instance, as skating, many +ancient skates having been found. There is a remarkable contrast between +the beautifully made skates now used on the comparatively rare occasions +when the ice bears and the roller skates used all the year round, to +those curious bone skates, so very primitive in their construction, +examples of which are to be found in several local museums. In the Hull +Museum, among the Market Weighton antiquities, there is a choice +collection from East Yorkshire; one, made from the cannon bone of a +horse, is smooth and well polished, having seen some active use, +evidently belonging to some skater in the fifteenth or sixteenth +century. + +The bone skates were fastened on to the feet much the same as metal +skates, but they had no cutting edges, and consequently the skater +carried a stick shod with an iron point, and by its aid propelled +himself forward. Fitzstephen, writing in the time of Edward II, +describes the ponds at Moorfields where the citizens of London skated. +The ponds have long been dried up and built over; it is there, however, +where, during excavations, some very fine examples of the old bone +skates have been found. + + +Relics of Old Sport. + +Among the relics of old sport met with are the curious and often +beautifully embroidered hoods of white leather used in the days of +hawking. These pretty little hoods, which were placed over the head of +the hawk when carried on the wrist to the hunting field, were often +embroidered in panels and furnished with braces for tying round the +hawk's head. In the British Museum there is a curious silver lock-ring +for a hawk engraved with arms and owner's name, apparently of +seventeenth-century workmanship. No doubt the real purport of such +curios is often overlooked, for not infrequently hawks' hoods have been +found amongst old dolls' clothing, having been given to children in +later years as playthings. + + +Guns, Pistols, and Flasks. + +Eastern weapons have been brought over to this country in large numbers, +some of them very ancient. It is said that among some of the Arab tribes +it is no uncommon thing to meet with swords and daggers of antique form, +richly damascened, and sometimes with jewelled hilts, made a thousand +years or more ago, and a few years ago Crusaders' relics could be met +with in the East. Many of these knives have silica blades, some of the +handles being of jade. Those of grey jade are often piqué with gold, +others, of ivory, being inlaid with jewels. + +There is not very much to interest in old guns of English make, for few +found in houses date back beyond the commencement of the nineteenth +century. Among them, however, are flint-locks and here and there an old +wheel-lock. The pistols met with among household curios are often +handsome and have been preserved in leather cases, carefully stowed +away. Some of them record the days of duelling, others the dangers of +the road, when highway robbers lurked in every wood, and many a family +coach was waylaid and its occupants robbed of their jewels and their +purses of gold. To those interested in sporting, and familiar with the +breech-loading guns of the present day, much interest attaches to the +old powder flasks which were once necessary accompaniments of sportsmen. +There are many beautifully engraved, embossed, and decorated flasks in +museums, some of the early seventeenth-century specimens being made of +boxwood, others of ivory, frequently ornamented with hunting scenes. In +Fig. 92 is shown a curious flint-lock powder tester, then also regarded +as one of the essential accessories of the sportsman's outfit. The +copper powder flask illustrated in Fig. 93 is now in the Hull Museum. It +is specially interesting in that the plain copper work is engraved in +the centre with its original owner's monogram--"W R" in script. This +flask, made about the year 1750, was evidently a keepsake, for engraved +round the circular disc is the legend "Keep this for Joseph's sake." + +In the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington there are some +more elaborate specimens, two of which are illustrated in Fig. 94. They +are magnificent examples of metal repoussé work--a favourite decoration +in the eighteenth century, copied in more inexpensive forms in the +nineteenth century by makers of sporting accessories, who stamped them +from dies and reproduced some of the old hunting scenes. + +A review of the outdoor sports and relics of former days would scarcely +be complete without some mention of swords and rapiers, which were once +commonly worn, along with pistols, alas! too frequently in use when a +hasty word called forth a challenge to a duel. Many of these old swords +are rusty, but they frequently show marks of former use. They are needed +no longer by civilians in this country, and take their places in +trophies of arms, forming important features in the decorative curios of +the household. + +[Illustration: FIG. 92.--A POWDER TESTER. + +FIG. 93.--A PRIMING FLASK. + +(_In the Municipal Museum, Hull._)] + + + + +XVII + +MISCELLANEOUS + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MISCELLANEOUS + + Dower chests--Medicine chests--Old lacquer--The tool + chest--Egyptian curios--Ancient spectacles--Curious + chinaware--Garden curios--The mounting of curios--Obsolete + household names. + + +There are many household curios which cannot be classified under the +headings of the foregoing chapters. They represent well-known features +in every home, and yet each little group has an individuality of its +own. Some may say that the main features of house-furnishing have been +left out of consideration, and that they are the most interesting +household curios when age and disuse have come upon them. Household +furniture, however, has been fully dealt with in the "Chats" series in +the two volumes entitled "Chats on Old English Furniture," and "Chats on +Cottage and Farmhouse Furniture," to which books those interested in the +curiosities of cabinet-making and village carpentry are referred. Yet +notwithstanding the completeness of those works there are a few objects +which have so entirely passed into the range of household curios, and +their uses were so entirely apart from present-day furniture, that some +of them are specially noted in the following paragraphs, together with a +few other isolated antiques. + + +Dower Chests. + +If there is one piece of furniture above another that is surrounded with +a halo of romance, surely it is the dower chest! We can picture the +incoming of the coffer in all the newness of hand polish, fresh from the +hands of the village carpenter or the retainer who had wrought the +gnarled old oak grown on the estate for a favourite daughter of his +lord--that chest which was to be packed full of fragrant linen, between +which was laid sweet lavender, and richly embroidered garments for the +bride, who, with her personal belongings stowed away therein, was to +pass from the parental home to her newly wedded and unknown life. There +are ancient chests full of historic memories, such as those in which the +wealth of monarchs has been stored, like that in Knaresborough Castle, +which, according to legend and some reference in old deeds, came over +with William the Conqueror. In the Castle Museum there is another chest +made for Queen Philippa in 1333--a veritable dower chest. + +Some of the older chests have had loops for poles by which they could be +carried about; but such were more correctly treasure chests. The dower +chests usually remained in the home of the bride, and in time became her +receptacle for bedding and other household stores, the little tray or +corner box for jewels and trinkets being disused and eventually done +away with altogether. The evolution of the chest until it became a +cabinet or a chest of drawers is a story for the lover of old furniture +to tell, but the dower chest in its earlier forms is a curio rich in +legend and folklore. It may interest American readers to record that +many of the oldest specimens in the States were first used as packing +cases of unusual strength, gifts from the old folks at home, when +colonists in Jacobean days crossed the Atlantic. Curiously enough, +American craftsmen copied them and maintained the purity of the old +English style long after the makers of English dower chests had been +influenced by Dutch and French design and inlay. + + +Medicine Chests. + +Some of the early English medicine chests, the foundation of which is of +wood, are covered with tapestry, others with green satin, sometimes +ornamented with floral devices made of puffed satin, overlaid and +outlined with gold thread. Medicine chests varied in size, but few +households were "furnished" without a fitting receptacle for home-made +recipes for simple ailments, such as were much resorted to in the past. +The chests were usually well fitted with bottles and phials, and with +glass stoppers or silver or pewter tops. Many of the medicines had been +prescribed by local practitioners, and were regarded as sovereign +remedies to be used on all occasions; others were family recipes held in +high repute. In such chests there was often a drawer or compartment +containing bleeding cups and lancet--a remedy often resorted to when an +illness could not be diagnosed. + + +Old Lacquer. + +The beautiful red lacquer work is getting scarce, although it has had a +long run, for it is more than twelve hundred years since the Japanese +learned the secret of making it from the Coreans, who in their turn had +it from the Chinese. The secret of producing in China and Japan lacquer +which cannot be imitated in other countries lies in the _rhus +vernificifera_ which flourishes in those localities. It is the gum of +that tree commonly called the lacquer-tree, which when taken fresh and +applied to the object it is intended to lacquer turns jet-black on +exposure to the sun, drying with great hardness. It will thus be seen +that although French and English lacquers have been very popular, the +imitation lacquer applied can have neither the effect nor the durability +of the natural gum which sets so hard, and in the larger and more +important objects can be applied again and again until quite a depth of +lacquer is obtained, sometimes encrusted over with jewels and other +materials embedded in it. + +The best English lacquer was made in this country between the years 1670 +and 1710, and was a very successful imitation of the Oriental. At that +time and during the following century very many tea caddies, trays, +screens, trinket boxes, and even furniture, were imported; and it was +those which English workmen copied, gradually increasing the variety of +household goods for which that material was so suitable. + +[Illustration: FIG. 94.--OLD POWDER FLASKS. + +(_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)] + +Old English lacquer differed from the more modern papier-maché in that +instead of the pulp being composed entirely of paper, glued together and +pressed, it was composed of a basis of wood, covered over with a black +lacquer, on which the design was painted in colours. It was made under +considerable difficulties, in that it had to compete with the imported +Oriental wares which were made in China and Japan under more favourable +natural conditions. + +The art of japanning was revived in England late in the eighteenth +century, and some remarkable pieces appear to have been the work of +amateurs who painted and gilded so-called lacquer work, tea caddies, and +jewelled caskets. It must be remembered that the art of japanning was +looked upon at one time as an accomplishment, for about the year 1700 +many gentlewomen were taught the art. + +French artists took up the Oriental style, and produced some very +successful lacquer work, striking out in an entirely distinct style, +which, as Vernis Martin decoration, became famous. The varnish or +lacquer forming the foundation for those delightful little pictures was +not unlike in effect the Oriental lacquer which to some extent it was +intended to imitate. + +In the early nineteenth century lacquering as an art fell into +disrepute, and such decorations were largely associated with the +commoner metal wares, stoved and lacquered by the so-called japanning +process carried out in Birmingham and other places, although there is +now some admiration shown by collectors for small trays, bread baskets, +candle boxes, and snuffer trays of metal, japanned and decorated by hand +in colours and much fine gold pencilling. + + +The Tool Chest. + +There have been amateur mechanics in all ages, and among the household +curios are many old tools suggestive of having been made when the +carpenter had plenty of time on his hands to decorate his tools with +carvings, and frequently to make up his own kit. Thus old planes and +braces were evidently the work of men who possessed some humour and +skill, too, for some of the carved decoration is quite grotesque. There +is a fine collection of old tools made and used in the seventeenth and +early eighteenth centuries on view in one of our museums. There is a +carpenter's plough, dated 1750, moulding planes and skew-mouthed +fillisters of beechwood, and a router plane of carved hornbeam. The +modern hand brace becomes more realistic, and its origin understood at a +glance when we examine the old hand brace of turned and carved boxwood, +dated 1642, in that collection. The part where the bit is fitted is +literally a hand, carved out of solid wood, and the curious crank +indicates an imaginary twist in the arm, perhaps suggested by some +carpenter who was able to manipulate his tools in a way not commonly +understood, thus giving to future carpenters a most useful tool. + + +Egyptian Curios. + +Among the collectable curios of old households are many antiquities from +foreign lands. Perhaps the most interesting, in that they afford us +examples of the prototypes of household antiques as they were known to a +nation possessing an early civilization, polish, and refinement, are +those which have been discovered recently in Egyptian tombs. Some +representative examples may be seen in the British Museum. There are +toilet requisites including mirrors, combs, and even wigs and wig boxes, +as well as a glass tube for stibium or eye paint. There are ivory +pillows or head rests, models of the ghostly boats of the underworld, +and a vast variety of children's toys, including wooden dolls with +strings of mud beads to represent hair, porcelain elephants, and wooden +cats; and there are children's balls made of blue glazed porcelain, and +of leather stuffed with chopped straw. There are many games and +amusements, such as stone draught boards, and draughtsmen in porcelain +and wood. There are bells of bronze and some remarkable musical +instruments like a harp, the body of which is in the form of a woman; +and there are reed flutes and whistles and cymbals such as were carried +by priestesses. There are curious ivory amulets, quaintly carved spoons, +ivory boxes, and even theatre tickets. Necklaces and pendants and other +articles of adornment are plentiful, for the Egyptian maidens possessed +much jewellery--bracelets, rings, and necklaces. One very exceptionally +fine relic of this far-off age is a toilet box complete with vases of +unguents, eye paint, comb, and bronze shell on which to mix unguents, +and other trinkets. Many such antiquities find their way into museums +and private collections of household curios, and are useful and +interesting for purposes of comparison, telling of customs which change +not, and of the many connecting links which exist between the past and +the present. + + +Ancient Spectacles. + +It is truly astonishing how many ancient spectacles, which to collectors +of such things would be veritable treasures, lie neglected and allowed +to "knock about" until broken or otherwise damaged. Those mostly +discovered are the heavy brass and silver-rimmed spectacles of about one +hundred years ago, some very interesting specimens of which are to be +seen in several of the larger local museums. + +Spectacles are of very respectable age, although they cannot be traced +back to the ancient peoples, for the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, +notwithstanding that they polished glass and rock crystal and possessed +much scientific lore, were ignorant of their use as aids to sight. + +It is said that the credit of the discovery of how to make use of +artificial aids to defective sight must be accorded to Roger Bacon, who +in his book _Opus Majus_, published in the thirteenth century, mentioned +magnifying glasses as being useful to old people to make them see +better. True spectacles are said to have been fashioned in 1317 by +Salvino degli Armati, a Florentine nobleman. At first they were convex; +indeed, no mention of concave glasses for shortsighted persons was made +until towards the middle of the sixteenth century. From that time onward +there were developments, and among the household curios are to be found +silver, brass, and tortoiseshell rims, and glasses of more or less +utility. + + +Curious China Ware. + +Old china and pottery have been fully dealt with by many specialist +writers, but there are some household curios made of porcelain, china, +and earthenware which cannot be omitted from this survey of household +curios. Foremost among these are the now scarce Toby jugs, made at so +many of the famous potteries. In a large collection the variations are +at once recognized; yet the same idea seems to have run through the +minds of the artists in fashioning these jugs, so essentially typical of +the age in which they were made and used. Among the Sunderland jugs are +many variations both in size and colouring; they were rich in colours, +too, and look exceedingly well on an old cabinet. + +The posset cups of silver were supplemented by tygs and posset cups and +many-handled drinking cups of early Staffordshire make. The brown and +yellow slip decoration of this ware is a striking characteristic. All +the early seventeenth-century ale drinking cups like the tygs had +handles, and in those days of conviviality the double or multiplied +handle served a useful purpose, for the vessels were in use when it was +the custom of the ale-house for several friends to drink out of one +vessel, just as in more polite society and on public occasions the +loving cup was passed round. + +Some of the so-called portrait busts and statuettes of the eighteenth +century are especially interesting to collectors. There are figures to +suit all; musicians may delight in that of Handel; others in the busts +of Wesley and Whitfield; explorers in the statue of Benjamin Franklin +made about 1770, and some in that of John Wilks seated near an old +column of a still earlier date. There is also a cleverly modelled figure +of Geoffrey Chaucer. One of the best known groups is that of the "Vicar +and Moses," made by Wood, of Burslem. + + +Garden Curios. + +It is said that garden craft, like most other forms of art, came from +the East; that the cultivation of gardens commenced in Egypt, Persia, +and Assyria, travelling westward through Greece and Rome; and in some of +the early English gardens which horticulturists are so fond of copying +to-day there are traces of Eastern influence still remaining. + +Although the garden is the place where we expect to find flowers, +foliage, and perhaps fruit and vegetables, it has always been associated +with home life, and some of the charms of domestic comradeship owe their +greatness to the garden and pleasance. + +It has always been the aim of the professional and the amateur gardener +to furnish the lawn and flower-beds with appropriate settings, some of +which have become very quaint in the eyes of twentieth-century +horticulturists. + +The Egyptians had their trellised bowers, and their tiny pools of clear +water. The Greeks, however, were fortunate in having undulated and even +hilly ground to cultivate, and their gardens were much more picturesque +than the level ground of Egypt, although the Orientals built terraces, +and by artificial means enhanced the beauty of their gardens. The +adornment of gardens with statuary comes to us from Greece, and many +modern reproductions of ancient Greek statues are regarded as the curios +of the modern garden. Delightful, indeed, are some of the statuettes in +stone and lead representing Aphrodite and the Graces. The Roman gardens +were magnificent in their miniature temples, replicas of which are found +in the old Georgian summer-houses, such as may be seen at Kew, and in +many private grounds, dating from that period. The Romans were lovers of +roses, and had many charming rose bowers, curiously and cunningly +formed. + +The dawn of gardening on some approved plan, and then ornamenting the +portions not covered with greenery, began in monastic days. The oldest +of the occupations of civilized man, it was long held in high repute, +and many worthy men have posed as amateurs. Indeed, there have been +Royal gardeners, among the most familiar being Edward I and Queen +Elizabeth. From Tudor times onward the once waste land in the immediate +vicinity of castles and palaces was cultivated, and the gardens of the +nobility along the Strand in London were full of beautiful stonework and +statuettes. A writer in the sixteenth century, describing an English +garden of his day, wrote: "Every garden of account hath its fish pond, +its maze, and its sundials." + +Many fine old fountains or miniature fishponds remain, and sundials are +among the curios associated with the outdoor life of the home. The +garden houses of the eighteenth century included a bowling green or +court, viewed from the terrace; and towards the end of that period many +leaden figures were cast, the favourite being replicas of Roman statuary +dedicated to such deities as Bacchus, Venus, Neptune, and Minerva. These +lead statues have been collected by dealers during the last few years. +Some of them are really very beautifully formed, although in many +instances the wear and tear of a couple of centuries has covered them +over with scratches and indentations. A few years ago lead statues +received little consideration from their owners, and the children made +them targets for stone-throwing. They are thought more of now, and at +several recent sales lead statuettes and vases have sold for +considerable sums. + +Sometimes ancient lead cisterns are seen outside old houses; many of +these and even rain-water spout heads, beautifully moulded and cast, are +among the household curios for which there is some call among +collectors. + + +The Mounting of Curios. + +A miscellaneous assortment of curios displayed without any regard to +their proper setting has just the same effect as a badly framed +picture, or a painting with an inappropriate frame. Sundry curios may be +made to look charming when properly shown in a glass-topped table or a +suitable case, their value as home ornaments being materially increased. +Indeed, there are many beautiful objects which look nothing unless +properly framed. The Wedgwood cameo gems so varied and so very minutely +tooled require proper display; according to their colours so should they +be arranged on a velvet or cloth background with an ample margin to +separate them. A group of miniatures looks nothing unless in suitable +setting or mount. Much of the beauty of old china is lost because it is +simply laid out without a colour scheme. A cup and saucer look very much +better when shown on a stand, so that the saucer can be seen and every +detail of the cup examined, the richness of the colouring inside or out, +as the case may be, being thrown up by the ebonized stand on which it is +placed. Carved ivories should certainly be shown with a dark setting. In +a similar way Oriental plaques and even smaller plates with light +backgrounds are set off to the best advantage when shown in dark ebony +frames. The Orientals know the value of framework perhaps more than any +other people, and among the curios they have sent over to this country +are appropriately carved frames and stands. The almost priceless ginger +jars when placed upon carved-wood stands, for which the Chinese are so +famous, are beautiful indeed, the contrast of the black and blue against +the black base being very striking. Indeed, much of the carved furniture +of the Orientals has been specially designed as a framework for +mother-o'-pearl and gem ornaments. The rare jade carvings in black ebony +screens, and the marvellous carving of the larger screens are but +appropriate settings to the painted and needlework pictures so rich in +colours and gold. In Fig. 57 we illustrate a very remarkable piece in +which the artist has expended his wonderful skill in providing a +suitable stand or frame for a very beautiful early porcelain plate. +Every detail of the carving is worthy of close inspection. This +beautiful piece was included in a collection of jade, cloisonné enamels, +and carved furniture gathered together in Java some years ago by a +well-known collector of Chinese and Oriental curios. Now and then such +pieces are to be seen in the shops of West End dealers. But it would be +difficult indeed to find one so characteristic of the Chinese carver's +art as the one shown. + + +Obsolete Household Names. + +Most household goods and both useful and ornamental home appointments +used at the present time are the outcome of progress and development, +and their names have changed but little. The change has been in style, +material, and manufacture rather than in newness of purpose. It is true +that in modern household economy some of the present-day household +utensils are the outcome of modern invention, having no similarity in +form to the simpler primitive contrivances which they have superseded. +Thus, for instance, the vacuum cleaner has little in its appearance to +associate it with the old-fashioned carpet brush, neither has the +modern knife cleaner much in common with the old knife board. There are +some articles, however, which have become quite obsolete, and their +names are fast disappearing from inventories of household goods, and, +like the older antiquarian relics, are likely soon to be forgotten. In +the foregoing chapters mention has been made of the collectable objects +of household use, dating from the period of bronze to modern times, and +no doubt there are many other articles which have entirely disappeared +on account of their perishable nature, or from their very character, +there being nothing to suggest their retention. It may be useful for +purposes of reference to note the following articles of furniture, +kitchen utensils, and mechanical contrivances, which were mentioned in a +book published about one hundred years ago--house furnishings, about the +ancient uses of which we hear nothing at the present time. + + AMPLE--An ointment box, formerly carried by a medical man. + + APPLE-GRATE--A sixteenth-century cradle of iron in which to + roast apples. + + BOMBARD--A large leathern bottle for carrying beer; a term also + applied to ancient ale-barrels. + + CANISTER--The ancient canister was a pannier or basket, the + name being appropriated to its modern use when tea came into + the market. + + CHAFING-DISH--The name appropriated to modern cooking vessels + was originally applied to a dish upon which perfumes were + burnt, and in Roman times was an ensign of honour. + + COMFIT BOXES--Boxes divided into compartments in which were + rare spices, handed round with dessert. + + FINGER-GUARD--Horn finger-guards were formerly used by writing + masters to protect their nails when nibbing pens. + + FIRE-SCREEN--Fire-screens are noted as early as the fourteenth + century, long before they were filled with needlework; they + were made of wicker, described by a sixteenth-century writer as + "a little wicker skrene sett in a frame of walnut tree." + + SCRIP--Scrips were hung from girdles, and differed, among the + chief varieties being the shepherd's scrip, the pilgrim's + scrip, and the traveller's scrip, a kind of purse or wallet. + + STANDISH--The old name for an ink horn or vessel, afterwards + applied to the stand or dish, or, as we call it now, inkstand, + which contained the box or vessel for ink, and another for + blotting powder. + + TRENCHER--A wooden platter, a term more particularly applied to + the beautiful hand-painted circular boards for sweetmeats or + cakes. + +In conclusion, in the foregoing pages most of the best-known household +curios--regarded as such by the collector--have been passed in review. +The list is, however, by no means exhausted, for as search is made among +the relics of former days many little-known objects come to light, and +as isolated examples find their way into public and private +collections. + + + + +INDEX + + +Ale tubes, 178 + +Almanacs, 259-262 + +American museums, 49 + +Ample, 355 + +Andirons, 42, 44, 47 + +Apple-grate, 355 + +Apple-scoops, 138, 141 + +Arms of Cutlers' Company, 80 + + +Banner screens, 165 + +Basting spoons, 133 + +Battersea enamels, 91, 183, 212 + +Beakers, 104 + +Bellows, 57 + +Bellows blower, 129 + +Bells, 311 + +Bilston enamel, 183 + +Bodkins, 239 + +Bohemian glass, 154 + +Boilers, 133 + +Bombards, 355 + +Boule, Charles, 29 + +Bow cupids, 112, 113 + +Bristol glass, 176 + +British glass, 96 + +British Museum exhibits, 92, 138, 141, 165, 208, 246, 278, 331, 347 + +Bronze pots, 133 + +Buhl work, 29 + + +Caddies, 112 + +Candle boxes, 65, 66 + +Candle moulds, 65 + +Candles, 65-67 + +Candlesticks, 67 + +Canisters, 355 + +Carving-knives, 85 + +Caskets, 192 + +Caudle cups, 99 + +Chafing dishes, 355 + +Chantilly porcelain, 91 + +Chatelaines, 216 + +Chelsea cupids, 112, 113 + +Chessmen, 328 + +Chestnut roasters, 142 + +Chests, 191 + +Chimney ornaments, 150 + +China, 349 + +Chinese influence, 100 + +Chinese lacquer, 29 + +Chippendale influence, 101, 162 + +Clocks, 298, 299 + +Clog almanacs, 259 + +Cloisonné enamel, 183 + +Coaching horns, 197 + +Cocoanut cups, 103 + +Cocoanut flagons, 103 + +Coffers, 191 + +Combs, 206-208 + +Comfit boxes, 355 + +Continental gridirons, 137 + +Cooking vessels, 138, 141 + +Copper urns, 117 + +Cordova leather, 187, 188 + +Couvre de feu, 39 + +Cream jugs, 108, 111 + +Cribbage boards, 330 + +Cruet stands, 96, 97 + +Cuir boulli work, 84, 90, 188, 190, 192 + +Cupids, Chelsea and Bow, 112, 113 + +Cups, 99, 100 + +Curio hunting, 24 + +Cutlers' Company, 80 + +Cutlery, 80-95, 239, 240 + + +Damascened steel, 90 + +Derbyshire spar, 154, 157, 158 + +Dolls, 325, 326 + +Domesday Book, 23 + +Dower chests, 340, 341 + +Draughts, 329, 357 + +Dressing cases, 215 + +Dutch influence on art, 30 + +Dutch ovens, 130 + + +Egyptian curios, 347 + +Egyptian influence, 153 + +Enamelled wares, 212 + +Enamels, 182-184 + + +Fenders, 53, 54 + +Finger guards, 355 + +Fire-dogs, 47 + +Fire drills, 39 + +Fireirons, 53 + +Fire-making appliances, 36-39 + +Fireplace, the, 41-44 + +Fireploughs, 39 + +Fire screens, 356 + +Flesh hooks, 138 + +Floor candlesticks, 67 + +Fluor spar, 157 + +Flutes, 314 + +Food-boxes, 141 + +Forks, 85 + +French art, 26 + +French influence, 153 + + +Gallybawk, 134 + +Games, 327-330 + +Garden curios, 350, 351 + +German wall warming stove, 50 + +Glass and enamels, 175-184 + +Glass beads, 235 + +Glass curios, 290-293 + +Glass ornaments, 178, 181 + +Glass pictures, 181 + +Glass rolling pins, 235 + +Gourd cups, 104 + +Grandfather clocks, 301 + +Gridirons, 137, 138 + +Grills, 137, 138 + +Guildhall Museum exhibits, 85, 99, 193 + +Guns, 333 + + +Hair ornaments, 196 + +Hampton Court fireplaces, 48 + +Hawk hoods, 332 + +Home ornaments, 149-170 + +Horn books, 197 + +Horners, Worshipful Company, 197 + +Horns, 313, 314 + +Horn work, 196, 197 + +Hull Museum exhibits, 193, 229, 332, 334 + + +Inkstands, 263 + +Irish curios, 67 + +Ivories, 166, 169 + + +Jack knives, 83 + +Jade, 158, 161 + +Japanned trays, 101 + +Jewel caskets, 220, 221 + + +Kentish ironmasters, 50 + +Kettles and stands, 108, 133 + +Kettles, miniature, 169 + +Kitchen grates, 129-133 + +Kitchen, the, 125-145 + +Knife-boxes, 117 + + +Lace bobbins, 232, 236 + +Lantern clocks, 298 + +Lanterns, 72-75 + +Leather and horn, 187-197 + +Leather bottles, 192-194 + +Leather flasks, 194 + +Leather pictures, 194 + +Leather ships, 194 + +Lights of former days, 61-75 + +Lille enamels, 212 + +Limoges enamels, 182-183 + +Links extinguishers, 68 + +Locks of hair, 219 + +London Cutlers' Company, 84 + +Love spoons, 235, 240, 289 + +Love tokens, 283-293 + +Lucky cups, 190 + +Lucky emblems, 283-293 + + +Mantelpieces, 41, 42 + +Marking of time, 297-307 + +Marqueterie designs, 30 + +Matches, early types, 41 + +Medicine chests, 341 + +Meissen porcelain, 91 + +Met-soex or eating knives, 83 + +Miniature curios, 169 + +Monochord, 312 + +Mosaics, 157 + +Mother-o'-pearl, 107 + +Mounting curios, 353 + +Musical instruments, 311-317 + + +Nailsea glass, 177 + +National Museum of Wales, 129, 141, 280 + +National Museum of Naples, 45 + +Needles of wood, 240 + +Needlework, 246 + +Nutcrackers, 113-117 + + +Oak settles, 162 + +Obsolete names, 355, 356 + +Oil lamps, 71, 72 + +Old gilt, 165, 166 + +Old lacquer, 342 + +Ormolu, 150 + + +Pastrycooks' knives, 138 + +Pastry wheels, 138 + +Patch boxes, 204, 211, 213 + +Peg tankards, 100, 103 + +Pens, 264, 267 + +Perfume boxes, 213 + +Pianofortes, 312 + +Piggins, 141 + +Pipe racks, 273 + +Pipes, 271, 272 + +Pistol tinder boxes, 40 + +Pistols, 333 + +Play and sport, 321-334 + +Playing cards, 330 + +Pomander boxes, 214 + +Pontypool wares, 106 + +Porridge bowls, 141 + +Porringers, 99, 100 + +Pounce boxes, 263 + +Priming flasks, 334 + +Punch bowls, 98 + +Punch ladles, 97 + +Puzzle cups, 100 + + +Queen Anne style, 100 + + +Roasting cages, 130 + +Roasting jacks, 125 + +Rolling pins, 177 + +Roman influence, 153 + +Rushlights, 62-65 + +Russian customs, 92 + + +Salt cellars, 95, 96 + +Sand boxes, 263 + +Saucepans, 125, 126 + +Scrap books, 255, 256 + +Scratchbacks, 215 + +Sheraton influence, 112, 162 + +Ships of glass, 182 + +Shoes, 195 + +Shovels, 53 + +Skates, 332 + +Skimmers, 133 + +Smokers' cabinet, 271-280 + +Smokers' tongs, 277 + +Snuff boxes, 196, 279, 280 + +Snuffer extinguishers, 68 + +Snuffers, 67-71 + +Snuff rasps, 279 + +Spectacles, 348 + +Spice boxes, 213 + +Spinning wheels, 226-231 + +Spits, 125, 129 + +Spleen stone, 158 + +Spoons, 86, 89, 117 + +Staffordshire figures, 150 + +Staffordshire wares, 97 + +Stained glass, 181 + +Standishes, 356 + +Straw-work, 232 + +Style, influence of, 26 + +Sugar nippers, 111 + +Sugar tongs, 111, 112 + +Sussex backs, 42, 47, 50 + +Sussex foundries, 50 + + +Table appointments, 79-118 + +Tapestry, 190, 191 + +Tapestry factories, 26 + +Taunton Castle Museum exhibits, 177, 193, 246, 278, 293 + +Teapots, 107 + +Teatable, the, 107, 108 + +Thimbles, 239 + +Tickets, benefit, ball, etc., 256 + +Tinder boxes, 39-41 + +Tobacco boxes, 274, 277 + +Tobacco pipes, 271, 272 + +Tobacco pipes (glass), 177 + +Tobacco stoppers, 277, 278 + +Toddy ladles, 97 + +Toilet table, the, 203-221 + +Tools, ancient, 346 + +Tower of London exhibits, 95 + +Trays, 105-107 + +Trenchers, 141, 356 + +Trencher salts, 96 + +Trivets, 54-57 + +Turnspits, 130 + + +Vases, 153, 154 + +Venetian glass, 91, 178 + +Vernis Martin varnishes, 29 + +Victoria and Albert Museum exhibits, 48, 57, 86, 89, 90, 142, 188, 191, + 192, 215, 231, 241, 279, 312, 317, 330, 334 + +Vinaigrettes, 214 + +Violins, 314 + +Virginals, 312 + + +Walking sticks (glass), 177 + +Wallace collection, 29 + +Wallets, 195 + +Warming pans, 142, 145 + +Watches, 302, 305 + +Watch keys, 305, 306 + +Watch papers, 259 + +Watch stands, 307 + +Waterford glass, 176 + +Wedgwood cameos, 170, 280 + +Whistles, 312, 313 + +Wood carvings, 161-165 + +Wooden cups, 104 + +Woodware, 117 + +Work boxes, 225-250 + +Writing cases, 262 + +Writing tables, 262 + + * * * * * + +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chats on Household Curios, by Fred W. 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